Systems and methods for tracking products transported in shipping containers

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for tracking shipment of products are disclosed herein. One or more cameras may be used capture video of an area where the products are loaded into and/or unloaded from shipping containers. Wireless beacons may be attached to the shipping containers. A network gateway may receive the wireless signals from the wireless beacon and the video from at least one camera. The wireless beacon may change a transmittal rate of the wireless signal from a first transmittal rate to a second transmittal rate in response to the cover on the shipping container being opened or closed. The network gateway may provide, to a remote server, a selected amount of the received video from its memory along with a unique identifier for the wireless beacon in response to the network gateway receiving the wireless signal at the second transmittal rate.

PRIORITY CLAIM

This patent claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No.62/508,567 to Walden et al., entitled “WIRELESS BEACON BASED SYSTEMS ANDMETHODS FOR CONSUMER PRODUCT TRACKING AND MARKETING”, filed May 19,2017; and U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/539,795 to Waldenet al., entitled “WIRELESS BEACON BASED SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR CONSUMERPRODUCT TRACKING AND MARKETING”, filed Aug. 1, 2017, each of which isincorporated by reference in its entirety as if fully set forth herein.

RELATED PATENTS

This patent application incorporates by reference in their entirety U.S.patent application Ser. No. 15/153,135 to Walden and U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 15/433,334 to Walden et al.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention

Embodiments disclosed herein relate to tracking of products. Certainembodiments relate to the use of wireless beacons and network gatewaysin the tracking of products transported in shipping containers.

2. Description of the Relevant Art

Tracking and accountability of shipments of certain products may beimportant for economic and/or regulatory considerations. For example,preventing the theft and/or unintended loss of high-value or expensiveproducts may reduce expenses. Additionally, regulations for sometightly-controlled products (e.g., prescription pharmaceutical products)typically require that all reasonable efforts be made to ensure that thenumber of loss incidents be minimized and that maximum effort be made torecover and/or determine the source of any product losses. Regulatorycontrol may be particularly needed for controlled substances such asnarcotics, sleeping pills, or pseudoephedrine.

Prescription pharmaceutical products or other high-value,tightly-controlled products are typically shipped in reusable totes. Thetotes may be used to ship products from one location to another (e.g.,from a warehouse to a pharmacy). The totes may include lids or coversthat are sealed using, for example, tamper evident tape, zip ties,crimped bands, or another sealing material that provides notice that thetotes have been unsealed or tampered with during transportation. Thetotes are supposed to only be opened at their final location (e.g., apharmacy) by authorized personnel.

Some retailers require that totes be opened in specific areas undersurveillance cameras. A typical problem in pharmacies or stock rooms,however, is that there may be a lack of security cameras available formonitoring unpacking of the totes. For example, even in pharmacies,cameras are typically dedicated to monitoring consumer areas (e.g.,purchase transactions and/or product aisles). Thus, the unpacking oftotes often goes unrecorded. To record unpacking of totes would requiresignificant infrastructure investment in surveillance cameras and/oradditional equipment. Thus, there is a need for simple, cost effectivesolutions for tracking totes and monitoring the loading/unloading of thetotes to provide accountability of tightly-controlled products.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In certain embodiments, a system includes a shipping container with acover. The shipping container may be configured to transport a pluralityof products. A wireless beacon may be attached to the shippingcontainer. The wireless beacon may include a processor and a memorywhere the wireless beacon is configured to broadcast a wireless signal.The wireless signal may include a data packet where the data packetincludes a unique identifier for the wireless beacon. A switch may becoupled to the cover of the shipping container and to the wirelessbeacon. The switch may be configured to provide a signal to the wirelessbeacon when the cover on the shipping container is opened or closed. Oneor more cameras may be configured to capture substantially continuousvideo of an area where the products are loaded into and/or unloaded fromthe shipping container. A network gateway may be configured to receivethe wireless signal from the wireless beacon and the substantiallycontinuous video from at least one camera. The network gateway mayinclude a processor and a memory where the received video is stored inthe memory of the network gateway. The wireless beacon may be configuredto change a transmittal rate of the wireless signal from a firsttransmittal rate to a second transmittal rate in response to the switchproviding the signal to the wireless beacon that the cover on theshipping container has been opened or closed. The wireless beacon mayprovide the wireless signal at the second transmittal rate for aselected amount of time before the transmittal rate changes back to thefirst transmittal rate. The network gateway may be configured toprovide, to a remote server, a selected amount of the received videofrom its memory along with the unique identifier for the wireless beaconin response to the network gateway receiving the wireless signal at thesecond transmittal rate. The selected amount of the received video mayinclude at least some video captured before the change in transmittalrate and at least some video captured after the change in transmittalrate.

In certain embodiments, a method includes continuously recording videoof a first location using at least one camera directed at the firstlocation. The first location may be an area where products are loadedinto and/or unloaded from a shipping container. The shipping containermay have a cover where the shipping container is used to transport theproducts between the first location and at least one second location.The continuously recorded video may be received in a network gatewaythat includes a processor and a memory. The received video may be storedin the memory of the network gateway. A wireless signal may be broadcastfrom a wireless beacon attached to the shipping container. The wirelessbeacon may include a processor and a memory and the wireless signal mayinclude a data packet with a unique identifier for the wireless beacon.The wireless beacon may broadcast the wireless signal at a firsttransmittal rate until the wireless beacon receives a signal from aswitch attached to the cover of the shipping container that the coverhas been opened or closed. The wireless beacon may broadcast thewireless signal at a second transmittal rate for a selected amount oftime in response to receiving the signal from the switch that the coverhas been opened or closed. The wireless signal broadcast by the wirelessbeacon attached to the shipping container may be received at the networkgateway. The wireless signal may include the unique identifier for thewireless beacon. The network gateway may provide, to a remote server, aselected amount of the received video from the network gateway memoryalong with the unique identifier for the wireless beacon in response tothe network gateway receiving the wireless signal at the secondtransmittal rate. The selected amount of the received video may includeat least some video captured before the change to the second transmittalrate and at least some video captured after the change to the secondtransmittal rate.

In certain embodiments, a method includes continuously recording videoof a first location using at least one camera directed at the firstlocation. The first location may be an area where products are loadedinto and/or unloaded from a shipping container. The shipping containermay have a cover and be used to transport the products between the firstlocation and at least one second location. A wireless signal may bebroadcast from a wireless beacon attached to the shipping container. Thewireless beacon may include a processor and a memory. The wirelesssignal may include a data packet with a unique identifier for thewireless beacon. The wireless beacon may broadcast the wireless signalat a first transmittal rate. The wireless signal and the continuouslyrecorded video may be received in a network gateway having a processorand a memory. The received video may be stored in the memory of thenetwork gateway. The received video may be associated with the uniqueidentifier received in the wireless signal. A transmittal rate of thewireless signal broadcast from the wireless beacon may be automaticallychanged in response to the wireless beacon receiving a signal from aswitch attached to the cover of the shipping container that the cover onthe shipping container has been opened or closed. The transmittal ratemay be changed to a second transmittal rate where the wireless beaconbroadcasts the wireless signal at the second transmittal rate for aselected amount of time in response to receiving the signal from theswitch that the cover has been opened or closed. A selected amount ofthe received video from the network gateway memory may be provided to aremote server along with the unique identifier for the wireless beaconin response to the network gateway receiving the wireless signal at thesecond transmittal rate. The selected amount of the received video mayinclude at least some video captured before the change in thetransmittal rate and at least some video captured after the change inthe transmittal rate.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Features and advantages of the methods and apparatus described hereinwill be more fully appreciated by reference to the following detaileddescription of presently preferred but nonetheless illustrativeembodiments when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings inwhich:

FIG. 1 depicts a block diagram of an embodiment of a point of purchasedisplay system.

FIG. 1A depicts an example of an embodiment of a POP display.

FIG. 2 depicts a block diagram of an embodiment of a retail locationwith a data collection device.

FIG. 3 depicts a block diagram representation of an embodiment of aninteraction between a customer device, wireless beacons, and a server.

FIGS. 4A-4K depict examples of content being displayed on a display of amobile device.

FIG. 5 depicts a flowchart of an embodiment of a method to assess alocation of a wireless beacon and its POP display.

FIG. 6 depicts a flowchart of an embodiment of a method used to assess alocation of a POP display.

FIG. 7 depicts a flowchart of a second embodiment of a method used toassess a location of a POP display.

FIG. 8 depicts a flowchart of a third embodiment of a method used toassess a location of a POP display.

FIG. 9 depicts a block diagram representation of an embodiment of aninteraction between a customer device, wireless beacons, and multiplenetwork gateways at a retail location.

FIG. 10 depicts a flowchart of a fourth embodiment of a method used toassess a location of a POP display.

FIG. 11 depicts a flowchart of a manufacturing supply chain associatedwith POP displays.

FIG. 12 depicts an embodiment of a supply/distribution chain for POPdisplays.

FIG. 13 depicts a block diagram of an embodiment of a plurality of pointof purchase displays at a retail location.

FIG. 14 depicts a top view representation of an embodiment of a wirelessbeacon in an enclosure on a POP display.

FIG. 15 depicts a side view representation of the embodiment depicted inFIG. 14.

FIG. 16A illustrates an example of a campaign calendar.

FIG. 16B illustrates an example of an interface displaying variousstatistics related to POP display deployment and sales.

FIG. 16C illustrates an information screen related to the productassociated with the POP display.

FIG. 16D illustrates an interface displaying national deploymentinformation for POP displays.

FIG. 16E illustrates an interface displaying state deploymentinformation for POP displays.

FIG. 16F illustrates an interface displaying supply chain information.

FIG. 16G illustrates an interface displaying a sales analysis associatedwith the POP display.

FIG. 17 depicts a flowchart of an embodiment of a geofence protocolprocess.

FIG. 18 depicts a representation of an embodiment of a POP displaysystem utilizing printable circuits.

FIG. 19 depicts a representation of an embodiment of a system with awireless beacon properly attached to a POP display.

FIG. 20 depicts a representation of an embodiment of reel/tray basedsystem for attaching wireless beacons to printable circuits on POPdisplays.

FIG. 21 depicts a top view representation of an embodiment of a productshelf with a device used for assessing product stock on the productshelf.

FIG. 22 depicts a front view representation of an embodiment of theproduct shelf and device of FIG. 21.

FIG. 23 depicts a side view representation of an embodiment of a device.

FIG. 24 depicts an embodiment of a product tote.

FIG. 25 depicts a representation of an embodiment of a workstation forloading/unloading a tote.

FIG. 26 depicts a block diagram of one embodiment of an exemplarycomputer system.

FIG. 27 depicts a block diagram of one embodiment of a computeraccessible storage medium.

While the disclosure is susceptible to various modifications andalternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way ofexample in the drawings and will herein be described in detail. Itshould be understood, however, that the drawings and detaileddescription thereto are not intended to limit the disclosure to theparticular form illustrated, but on the contrary, the intention is tocover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within thespirit and scope of the present disclosure as defined by the appendedclaims. The headings used herein are for organizational purposes onlyand are not meant to be used to limit the scope of the description. Asused throughout this application, the word “may” is used in a permissivesense (i.e., meaning having the potential to), rather than the mandatorysense (i.e., meaning must). Similarly, the words “include,” “including,”and “includes” mean including, but not limited to. Additionally, as usedin this specification and the appended claims, the singular forms “a”,“an”, and “the” include singular and plural referents unless the contentclearly dictates otherwise. Furthermore, the word “may” is usedthroughout this application in a permissive sense (i.e., having thepotential to, being able to), not in a mandatory sense (i.e., must). Theterm “include,” and derivations thereof, mean “including, but notlimited to.” The term “coupled” means directly or indirectly connected.

The term “automatically” refers to an action or operation performed by acomputer system (e.g., software executed by the computer system) ordevice (e.g., circuitry, programmable hardware elements, ASICs, etc.),without user input directly specifying or performing the action oroperation. Thus, the term “automatically” is in contrast to an operationbeing manually performed or specified by the user, where the userprovides input to directly perform the operation. An automatic proceduremay be initiated by input provided by the user, but the subsequentactions that are performed “automatically” are not specified by theuser, i.e., are not performed “manually”, where the user specifies eachaction to perform. For example, a user filling out an electronic form byselecting each field and providing input specifying information (e.g.,by typing information, selecting check boxes, radio selections, etc.) isfilling out the form manually, even though the computer system mustupdate the form in response to the user actions. The form may beautomatically filled out by the computer system where the computersystem (e.g., software executing on the computer system) analyzes thefields of the form and fills in the form without any user inputspecifying the answers to the fields. As indicated above, the user mayinvoke the automatic filling of the form, but is not involved in theactual filling of the form (e.g., the user is not manually specifyinganswers to fields but rather they are being automatically completed).The present specification provides various examples of operations beingautomatically performed in response to actions the user has taken.

Various units, circuits, or other components may be described as“configured to” perform a task or tasks. In such contexts, “configuredto” is a broad recitation of structure generally meaning “havingcircuitry that” performs the task or tasks during operation. As such,the unit/circuit/component can be configured to perform the task evenwhen the unit/circuit/component is not currently on. In general, thecircuitry that forms the structure corresponding to “configured to” mayinclude hardware circuits and/or memory storing program instructionsexecutable to implement the operation. The memory can include volatilememory such as static or dynamic random access memory and/or nonvolatilememory such as optical or magnetic disk storage, flash memory,programmable read-only memories, etc. The hardware circuits may includeany combination of combinatorial logic circuitry, clocked storagedevices such as flops, registers, latches, etc., finite state machines,memory such as static random access memory or embedded dynamic randomaccess memory, custom designed circuitry, programmable logic arrays,etc. Similarly, various units/circuits/components may be described asperforming a task or tasks, for convenience in the description. Suchdescriptions should be interpreted as including the phrase “configuredto.” Reciting a unit/circuit/component that is configured to perform oneor more tasks is expressly intended not to invoke 35 U.S.C. § 112(f)interpretation for that unit/circuit/component.

In an embodiment, hardware circuits in accordance with this disclosuremay be implemented by coding the description of the circuit in ahardware description language (HDL) such as Verilog or VHDL. The HDLdescription may be synthesized against a library of cells designed for agiven integrated circuit fabrication technology, and may be modified fortiming, power, and other reasons to result in a final design databasethat may be transmitted to a foundry to generate masks and ultimatelyproduce the integrated circuit. Some hardware circuits or portionsthereof may also be custom-designed in a schematic editor and capturedinto the integrated circuit design along with synthesized circuitry. Theintegrated circuits may include transistors and may further includeother circuit elements (e.g. passive elements such as capacitors,resistors, inductors, etc.) and interconnect between the transistors andcircuit elements. Some embodiments may implement multiple integratedcircuits coupled together to implement the hardware circuits, and/ordiscrete elements may be used in some embodiments.

The scope of the present disclosure includes any feature or combinationof features disclosed herein (either explicitly or implicitly), or anygeneralization thereof, whether or not it mitigates any or all of theproblems addressed herein. Accordingly, new claims may be formulatedduring prosecution of this application (or an application claimingpriority thereto) to any such combination of features. In particular,with reference to the appended claims, features from dependent claimsmay be combined with those of the independent claims and features fromrespective independent claims may be combined in any appropriate mannerand not merely in the specific combinations enumerated in the appendedclaims.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

The following examples are included to demonstrate preferredembodiments. It should be appreciated by those of skill in the art thatthe techniques disclosed in the examples which follow representtechniques discovered by the inventor to function well in the practiceof the disclosed embodiments, and thus can be considered to constitutepreferred modes for its practice. However, those of skill in the artshould, in light of the present disclosure, appreciate that many changescan be made in the specific embodiments which are disclosed and stillobtain a like or similar result without departing from the spirit andscope of the disclosed embodiments.

In this patent, certain U.S. patents, U.S. patent applications, andother materials (e.g., articles) have been incorporated by reference.The text of such U.S. patents, U.S. patent applications, and othermaterials is, however, only incorporated by reference to the extent thatno conflict exists between such text and the other statements anddrawings set forth herein. In the event of such conflict, then any suchconflicting text in such incorporated by reference U.S. patents, U.S.patent applications, and other materials is specifically notincorporated by reference in this patent.

Further modifications and alternative embodiments of various aspects ofthe disclosed embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the artin view of this description. Accordingly, this description is to beconstrued as illustrative only and is for the purpose of teaching thoseskilled in the art the general manner of carrying out the disclosedembodiments. It is to be understood that the forms of the disclosedembodiments shown and described herein are to be taken as examples ofembodiments. Elements and materials may be substituted for thoseillustrated and described herein, parts and processes may be reversed,and certain features of the disclosed embodiments may be utilizedindependently, all as would be apparent to one skilled in the art afterhaving the benefit of this description of the disclosed embodiments.Changes may be made in the elements described herein without departingfrom the spirit and scope of the disclosed embodiments as described inthe following claims.

This specification includes references to “one embodiment” or “anembodiment.” The appearances of the phrases “in one embodiment” or “inan embodiment” do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment, althoughembodiments that include any combination of the features are generallycontemplated, unless expressly disclaimed herein. Particular features,structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable mannerconsistent with this disclosure.

As used herein, the word “display” is intended to include an array ofmerchandising materials and store-based assets such as, but not limitedto, signs, test product or samples, high-value or high-interestproducts, permanent or semi-permanent fixtures, coupon dispensers,aisle-based video screens, mobile coolers, or other movable assetswithin a retail outlet.

FIG. 1 depicts a block diagram of an embodiment of point of purchase(“POP”) display system 100. In certain embodiments, system 100 includesPOP display 102. In certain embodiments, circuit board 104 is located onPOP display 102. Circuit board 104 may be, for example, a printedcircuit board or any other suitable circuit board for connecting andoperating multiple electronic components including, but not limited to,integrated circuits. Circuit board 104 may be placed (installed) on, orcoupled to, POP display 102 during or after manufacturing of the POPdisplay.

In certain embodiments, circuit board 104 includes battery 106, switch108, memory 110, controller 112, wireless beacon 114, and sensors 116.In certain embodiments, controller 112 includes circuitry, an integratedcircuit, or a processor operable to control operation of wireless beacon114 and/or other components of circuit board 104 and/or POP display 102.Memory 110 may include many different types of memory known in the artfor use on a circuit board. For example, memory 110 may be flash memory,RAM, EEROM, EEPROM, and/or one-time programmable memory.

In some embodiments, controller 112 is coupled to clock 113. Clock 113may be capable of tracking both date and time. Clock 113 may beassociated with wireless beacon 114 to provide time information (e.g.,date and time) to the wireless beacon. In some embodiments, clock 113 islocated in a chip on circuit board 104. In some embodiments, clock 113is located in a microprocessor in wireless beacon 114.

In some embodiments, circuit board 104 includes unique label 117. Uniquelabel 117 may be added during or after manufacturing of circuit board104. Unique label 117 may be, for example, a printed label, such as a QRlabel or barcode, that can be viewed or electronically scanned foridentifying information. Unique label 117 may include a uniqueidentification for circuit board 104 that differentiates the circuitboard from other circuit boards that may be used on other POP displays.For example, each circuit board 104 may have its own identificationnumber that specifically identifies the circuit board.

POP display 102, as described herein, may be any display that holdsproducts and/or advertises products. For example, POP display 102 mayinclude signs, graphics, or other marketing materials that communicateinformation about a product to a consumer. FIG. 1A depicts an example ofan embodiment of POP display 102. In some embodiments, POP display 102includes the product itself. For example, products such as, but notlimited to, demo units of electronic items, appliances, and/or rugs maybe a POP display. POP display 102 is typically placed next to or nearthe merchandise the display is promoting and/or included as part of themerchandise. In some embodiments, POP display 102 is utilized to hold,support, or display products associated with the POP display. In certainembodiments, POP display 102 is a corrugated cardboard display. POPdisplay 102 may also include displays made from materials such as, butnot limited to, paper, paperboard, bristol board, foam cored board,plastic, metal, or any other material suitable for holding and/oradvertising products.

POP display 102 may be a component of a marketing or promotionalcampaign. In certain embodiments, POP display 102 is generally locatedin a retail environment (e.g., a retail store) or any other locationwhere a customer purchases product or a decision to purchase product ismade. In some embodiments, POP display 102 is placed in other displaylocations in order to drive potential customers to a specific area. Forexample, POP display 102 may be placed in a window display and used toprovide (e.g., “beam”) promotional information to people as they pass byoutside a retail store. Regardless of the location of POP display 102,the POP display may be intended to draw the customer's attention toproducts associated with the display. These products may, in someembodiments, be new products, products on sale, and/or productsassociated with a special offer. POP display 102 may also be used topromote special events (e.g., seasonal or holiday-time sales).

In certain embodiments, as shown in FIG. 1, POP system 100 includes theuse of customer device 118. Customer device 118 may be, for example, amobile device. Customer device 118 may be a small computing device,typically small enough to be handheld (and hence also commonly known asa handheld computer or simply handheld). Mobile devices may be any ofvarious types of computer systems devices which are mobile or portableand which perform wireless communications using WLAN communication.Examples of mobile devices include mobile telephones or smart phones(e.g., iPhone™, Android™-based phones), and tablet computers such asiPad™, Samsung Galaxy™, etc. Various other types of devices would fallinto this category if they include Wi-Fi or both cellular and Wi-Ficommunication capabilities, such as laptop computers (e.g., MacBook™),portable gaming devices (e.g., Nintendo DS™, PlayStation Portable™,Gameboy Advance™, iPhone™), portable Internet devices, and otherhandheld devices, as well as wearable devices such as smart watches,smart glasses, headphones, pendants, earpieces, etc. In general, theterm “mobile device” can be broadly defined to encompass any electronic,computing, and/or telecommunications device (or combination of devices)which is easily transported by a user and capable of wirelesscommunication using WLAN or Wi-Fi. In certain embodiments, customerdevice 118 includes any device used by a customer with display 119(e.g., an LCD screen or touchscreen), one or more wireless transceivers(e.g., wireless transceivers 120A, 120B, shown in FIG. 1), softwarepackage 122, and memory cache 124. Display 119, in some embodiments,includes a user interface for customer device 118 (e.g., the displayallows interactive input for the user).

In certain embodiments, wireless beacon 114 on POP display 102 interactswith customer devices 118 carried by potential customers. Wirelessbeacon 114 may be configured to interact with customer devices 118through wireless transceiver 120A. In certain embodiments, wirelesstransceiver 120A is a Bluetooth Low Energy (“BLE”) transceiver.

In certain embodiments, wireless beacon 114 includes a unique identifierassociated with the wireless beacon. The unique identifier may bebroadcast by wireless beacon 114, received through wireless transceiver120A, and used to identify the wireless beacon (e.g., the uniqueidentifier may be used by a server to identify the wireless beacon asdescribed herein). Thus, in embodiments with multiple wireless beacons114, the wireless beacons broadcast their respective unique identifiersand the unique identifiers may be used to identify and/or differentiatethe wireless beacons and, by extension, the circuit board and POPdisplay associated with each wireless beacon.

Wireless beacon 114 may be a transponder sending data via radio signals.In certain embodiments, wireless beacon 114 is a Bluetooth Low Energy(“BLE”) beacon. A Bluetooth LE beacon may operate in either peripheralor central mode, depending on the circumstances, though in certainembodiments, the beacon may default to peripheral mode. Chipsetsimplementing beacon functionality may be commercially available. Twonon-limiting examples are the Texas Instruments CC2541 and CC2600. Thedisclosed embodiments, however, do not depend on the particular choiceof Bluetooth chipset.

Bluetooth low energy (Bluetooth LE, BLE, also marketed as BluetoothSmart) is a wireless personal area network technology designed andmarketed by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group aimed at applicationsin the healthcare, fitness, beacons, security, and home entertainmentindustries. Compared to Classic Bluetooth, Bluetooth Smart is intendedto provide considerably reduced power consumption and cost whilemaintaining a similar communication range.

Bluetooth Smart was originally introduced under the name Wibree by Nokiain 2006. It was merged into the main Bluetooth standard in 2010 with theadoption of the Bluetooth Core Specification Version 4.0. In certainembodiments, wireless beacons 114 are Bluetooth LE beacons. Bluetooth LEbeacons may be used, at least in part, because Bluetooth LE has beenwidely adopted in customer devices 118 (e.g., mobile devices). Thus, apotential consumer may likely already have the requisite hardware tointeract with circuit board 104 and POP display 102. For example,Bluetooth LE has been built into iPhones and iPads since 2010, and manyAndroid devices since 2013. Bluetooth LE wireless beacons are also, asthe name implies, energy efficient, which may be an importantconsideration for technology deployed on mobile devices. In certainembodiments, the positioning and data transmission capabilities ofBluetooth LE are also of use, though the embodiments disclosed hereinmay also be implemented using other wireless standards, including thevarious versions of IEEE 802.11.

In certain embodiments, POP display system 100 includes server 126.Server 126 may communicate with customer device 118 through wirelesstransceiver 120B on the customer device. In certain embodiments,wireless transceiver 120B is a WiFi-enabled or cellular transceiver.Server 126 may include content 128. In certain embodiments, content 128is uploaded to server 126 via an exposed API (Application ProgrammingInterface). Content 128 may be included as part of a storage structureor storage management system (e.g., a database) accessible by server126. For example, content 128 may be stored in a database in anaccessible memory of server 126. In certain embodiments, content 128includes information that corresponds to advertising, marketing, and/orpromotional campaigns associated with POP displays 102. For example,content 128 may include, but not be limited, campaign start times,campaign time periods, campaign locations, coupons associated with thecampaign, advertising and/or marketing associated with the campaign, andpromotions associated with the campaign.

As server 126 includes content 128, the server may be referred to as a“content server”, though the phrase “content server” as used in thisdisclosure should not be considered strictly limiting. In someembodiments, the physical server(s) (e.g., server 126) that storescontent 128 may perform other functionality and/or work in conjunctionwith other servers to enable some or all of its functionality. Forexample, server 126 may work with a load balancing server to optimizeits communications load over a network or authentication servers tovalidate the entities requesting a download of content. In someembodiments, server 126 may operate in a distributed nature such thatcontent 128 is distributed over more than one physical storage device orlogical drive partitions. The term “content server” is intended toencompass all of these scenarios and any other that one of ordinaryskill in the art would contemplate in implementing the disclosedfunctionality.

In certain embodiments, server 126 includes information 130. Information130 may be included as part of a storage structure or storage managementsystem (e.g., a database) accessible by server 126. Information 130 mayinclude information regarding POP display 102 and wireless beacon 114such as, but not limited to, the unique identifier, location information(if known), and retail location information for the POP display (e.g.,store location information for a specific retailer associated with thePOP display). In some embodiments, information 130 includes informationrecorded from sensors 116 and/or other components on POP displays 102 aswell as information recorded on customer devices 118 that is transmittedto server 126.

In certain embodiments, SDK (“Software Developer Kit”) 125 is located insoftware package 122 on customer device 118, as shown in FIG. 1. SDK 125may allow programmers to develop applications (e.g., mobile application127) for customer device 118 that interface the customer device withserver 126 and circuit board 104. SDK 125 may abstract low levelimplementation details of POP display system 100 and simplify thedevelopment of software applications compatible with the disclosedembodiments. In certain embodiments, SDK 125 includes functionality tofacilitate accessing APIs exposed by server 126 (e.g., the contentserver) as well as wireless (e.g., Bluetooth) mediated interactions withwireless beacons 114.

In certain embodiments, mobile application 127 is located in softwarepackage 122 on customer device 118. Mobile application 127 may becoupled to SDK to allow the mobile application to interface and utilizefunctions of the SDK. In some embodiments, SDK 125 may be embedded inmobile application 127 (e.g., the SDK is a software code element of themobile application). Mobile application 127 may be, in some embodiments,a retailer “app” or other mobile application written for interactionbetween a customer and a specific retailer (e.g., the mobile applicationmay be a customer loyalty app specific for a selected retailer). Incertain embodiments, mobile application 127 provides an interactiveinterface for the customer through customer device 118. For example,mobile application 127 may use display 119 as a user interface (thedisplay is a touchscreen) to allow interactive customer input or themobile application may use the display in combination with another inputsystem (e.g., a keyboard or voice input) to allow interactive customerinput. In certain embodiments, mobile application 127 utilizes SDK 125,when run on customer device 118, to detect that the customer device isin proximity to a compatible Bluetooth LE beacon (e.g., wireless beacon114), as described herein.

In certain embodiments, SDK 125 is configured to receive measurementsfrom customer device 118 through built-in features of the customerdevice. For example, SDK 125 may receive measurements fromaccelerometer, gyroscope, compass, audio, light, or Near FieldCommunication measurements on customer device 118. These measurementsmay be utilized to increase the accuracy of calculated locationinformation or used to infer additional information about either a useror an environment of POP display 102. For example, information from anaccelerometer on customer device 118 may be combined with otherinformation to increase the accuracy of detection of “bumps” orrecognition of gestures as described below.

In some embodiments, the measurements received by SDK 125 are sent toserver 126 and stored in information 130. Server 126 may integrate themeasurement information from customer device 118 to increase accuracy oflocation information and/or infer additional information, as describedbelow. In some embodiments, server 126 may integrate the measurementinformation with information from external data sources, which may belocated in information 130 on the server. For example, server 126 mayintegrate store specific information from nearby beacons, geolocationinformation provided by a retail loyalty application on connected mobiledevices, or other information received from third party sources.

In certain embodiments, POP display system 100 utilizes wireless signalstrength to infer distance between customer device 118 and POP display102. POP display system 100 may utilize this distance information tomodulate and/or control the particular information conveyed to thecustomer through customer device 118. In certain embodiments, SDK 125 insoftware 122 on customer device 118 receives information, based ondistance, indicating the detection of “bumps” or “pulls” (e.g., when auser physically touches (or very nearly so) the customer device againsta designated area of POP display 102 (e.g., at or near a “tap devicehere for more information” designated area)). In the disclosedembodiments, the concept of bumping is applied as a way for a user toexpress interest in POP display 102 independent of any technicalrequirements of the underlying wireless communication protocol beingused.

Various techniques may be utilized to estimate distance between customerdevice 118 and POP display 102. For example, in certain embodiments,Received Signal Strength Indication (“RSSI”) values of Bluetooth signalsare measured and analyzed to infer distance. The distance inferred maybe relative or absolute in nature (e.g., the technique may only specifya distance from POP display 102 as opposed to exact position). By meansof illustration, the general relationship between RSSI value anddistance is approximately RSSI[dbm]=−(10×n×log₁₀(d)−A), where d is thedistance and A is the offset which is the measured RSSI value 1 meterpoint away from the Bluetooth LE device. Again, this is provided simplyfor illustrative purposes and other relationships and formulas may beutilized by the disclosed embodiments to infer location informationabout the customer device and, by extension the customer. Other examplesof values that may be utilized to determine signal strength include, butare not limited to, packet loss ratio or rate, header error check,cyclic redundancy check, and forward error correction. Furthermore, themeasurement of these various values, including RSSI, may be implementedin numerous ways in hardware. For example, one may utilize Goertzelalgorithms to derive signal strength values from a series of transceiverpower measurements. As shown above, the precise implementation detailsof the measurement to calculate location information can vary and theembodiments disclosed herein may be suited to the usage of anymeasurement to calculate location information. Furthermore, locationrelated information (e.g., signal strength measurements, values derivedfrom signal strength measurements, identifiers associated with aparticular mobile device, timestamps associated with a signal strengthreading) may be saved to a memory (e.g., memory 110 or memory cache 124)for future review and/or analysis. In some embodiments, the locationrelated information includes information about customer device 118. Forexample, the information may include information about chipsets,antennas, and/or an operating system of customer device 118. Theinformation about customer device 118 may be part of the future reviewand/or analysis to increase accuracy in assessing relative locationinformation of the customer device and POP display 102.

In certain embodiments, signal strength (e.g., Bluetooth signal strengthas measured, for example, via RSSI) between POP display 102's wirelessbeacon 114 and wireless transceiver 120A on customer device 118 ismonitored and, if it surpasses a predefined threshold or “trigger”level, it is inferred that the customer has “bumped” the customer deviceagainst the POP display and has made a “pull” delivery request (e.g.,the user has indicated his/her intention to receive or “pull” contentassociated with the POP display). In certain embodiments, the predefinedthreshold is set at a signal strength level that indicates that the userhas clearly intended to initiate a “bump” or “pull” with POP display102. For example, the predefined threshold may be set at a signalstrength level that clearly defines customer device 118 hasintentionally been placed on or near to the designated area of POPdisplay 102 by the customer. In some embodiments, the predefinedthreshold is combined with other information (e.g., information from anaccelerometer on customer device 118) to define intent of the customerin “pulling” for content. For example, accelerometer data may becombined with the predefined threshold (measured via RSSI) to recognizea gesture (e.g., movement of customer device 118 in an intentional way)made by the user that indicates intent of the customer to receiveinformation.

In certain embodiments, the predefined threshold improves thereliability of bump detection and the threshold may be dynamic innature. For example, the threshold may be specified by a formula thataccounts for certain variables rather than a set static number. In someembodiments, the algorithm may not allow a new bump to be registereduntil the signal is outside of a separate threshold, usually higher invalue than the entrance threshold. This restriction may help to preventspurious bumps. Additional techniques may be utilized to improve bumpdetection between customer device 118 and wireless beacon 114 (such as afilter to smooth RSSI values). In some embodiments, signal profiles forsetting the predefined threshold are associated with a type of customerdevice 118 (e.g., a type of mobile device, an operating system used onthe mobile device, and/or a type of antenna used in the mobile device).Server 126 may receive type data for customer device 118 when thecustomer device is in contact with the server (e.g., the receiverreceives mobile device type information and/or operating systeminformation). Server 126 then may send signal profiles (e.g., RSSIsignal profiles) associated with the type data to SDK 125 on customerdevice 118 based on the received type data for the customer device. Thesignal profiles may be sent to SDK 125 on customer device 118 along withcontent for engagement of the customer device with POP display 102(e.g., the content and the signal profiles are sent in the same datapacket to the SDK or “substantially simultaneously” to the SDK). SDK 125may store the signal profiles in memory cache 124 for accessing inassessment of bump indications using customer device 118. SDK 125 mayuse the signal profiles to define a predefined threshold level in thesignal strength for engagement between customer device 118 and POPdisplay 102.

In certain embodiments, the signal profiles sent to SDK 125 by server126 are specific to customer device 118. For example, the signalprofiles may be specifically characterized based on customer device 118being a specific type of mobile device, having a specific operatingsystem, and/or having a specific antenna. In some embodiments, thesignal profiles include RSSI signal profiles specific to customer device118. Providing signal profiles specific to different customer devices118 allows different customers using the different customer devices tobe provided with substantially consistent customer engagementexperiences.

In some embodiments, the signal profiles sent to SDK 125 on customerdevice 118 are updated as the operating system on the customer devicechanges. For example, signal profiles associated with a specificcustomer device may be modified or updated when a new or updatedoperating system is released for the specific customer device. Thus, ifserver 126 determines that the operating system on customer device 118has changed to a new or updated operating system that requires updatedsignal profiles, the server may provide the updated profiles to thecustomer device when a request for up-to-date content is received fromthe customer device. The signal profiles for the specific customerdevice may also be updated for other changes that may affect the signalprofiles (e.g., hardware changes or network changes). Updating thesignal profiles associated with customer devices 118 may be used tocontinually refine and/or provide consistency in customer engagementexperiences associated with POP display 102.

Some embodiments may utilize different methods for gauging distance. Forexample, other performance measures associated with a Bluetooth signal,RSSI values associated with a 802.11 WiFi signal, information from aNear Field Communication signal, etc. may be used. Regardless of theorigin and type of information used, the associated algorithms mayutilize the information to detect bumps. In some embodiments, thedetection of bumps is performed in circuit board 104 rather than oncustomer device 118.

Bumping may be used to signal that the customer is explicitly requestingdigital content (e.g., requesting content to be display on display 119of customer device 118). In the event that a bump is detected, the SDKmay provide content to the customer on customer device 118 (this may bereferred to as “pull” delivery). For example, content may be display ondisplay 119 through mobile application 127. The content may includecontent stored in memory cache 124, which includes content 128previously received from server 126 as described herein. Conversely,“push” delivery may occur in the absence of a bump, where content 128may be delivered by server 126 to customers that have not explicitlyrequested content. In certain embodiments, unsolicited push content isthrottled to prevent from overloading the customer with unrequestedcontent, while pull content (e.g., requested content) is not throttled.In some embodiments, the exact throttling scheme used is configurable bysoftware and may be specified by various entities. For example, theexact throttling scheme may be specified by a POP display owner, aretailer, an advertising company, a manufacturer of goods or servicesassociated with the POP display, etc.

In some embodiments, a throttling scheme is personalized for aparticular user. For example, the throttling scheme may includepersonalized data based on a persona of the user. The personalized datamay be uploaded to and/or stored in memory cache 124 on customer device118. The persona of the user may include categories based on one or moreuser preferences. The preferences may be for categories that includenon-specific information about the user (e.g., anonymous informationbased only on the behavior of the user). Using non-specific informationmay protect privacy and security of the user of customer device 118. Insome embodiments, the persona of the user is defined by preferencesspecified by a retailer (e.g., through a retailer app in SDK 125 oncustomer device 118).

Information relevant to the throttling scheme may be incorporated inseveral aspects of the disclosed embodiments. First, content 128 may beuploaded to server 126 via an exposed API (Application ProgramInterface) designed to work with the overall device ecosystem. This APIrequires that the uploaded content be associated with information thatallows server 126 to associate content 128 with specific beacons (e.g.,wireless beacon 114). The API may also require information associatedwith the uploaded content that will allow customer device 118, via anAPI call, to determine if the content should be served up based on pushor pull.

In certain embodiments, as described above, there are various ways for auser to indicate or provide an indication that the user has interest ininformation (e.g., content) regarding POP display 102. The user mayindicate or provide an indication of the user's interest in contentthrough interaction of customer device 118 with wireless beacon 114 andPOP display 102. In some embodiments, “bump” interaction is used toindicate that the user has interest in content for POP display 102. Bumpinteraction may include the user placing customer device 118 within aselected distance of wireless beacon 114 to indicate a desire to pullcontent related to POP display 102. The selected distance may bedetermined based on a predefined threshold level in signal strength asdescribed herein.

In some embodiments, “dwell” interaction is used to indicate that theuser has interest in content for POP display 102. Dwell interaction mayinclude the user (and their customer device 118) dwelling within aselected distance of POP display 102 for a selected time period. Contentmay be displayed on customer device 118 after the selected time periodis reached with the user within the selected distance of POP display102. The selected distance and/or the selected time period may bepredetermined for customer device 118. For example, customer device 118may include settings determined by the user (e.g., user-configurablesettings in a retailer app).

In some embodiments, “push” interaction is used to indicate that theuser has interest in content for POP display 102. Push interaction mayinclude customer device 118 receiving data packets from wireless beacons114 and displaying content in response to receiving the data packets. Asdescribed above, push interaction may be controlled or throttled toprevent the user from being overloaded with content. Additionally, SDK125 may allow the user to determine whether they accept or rejectcontent from push interactions (e.g., the user may be allowed to selectto receive or not receive push interaction content in mobile application127).

In certain embodiments, settings for the interactions described aboveare tuned and provided to customer device 118 by server 126. The settingfor the interactions may define thresholds for when content is displayedto the user on customer device 118 in response to an interaction betweenthe customer device and POP display 102. Settings for the interactionsmay include distances for detection of the interactions (e.g.,predetermined signal strengths), predetermined time periods for theinteractions, and/or other characteristics that control interactionsdescribed herein. In some embodiments, the settings for the interactionsare provided to customer device 118 along with content associated withPOP display 102. As the content associated with POP display 102 istypically received (e.g., updated) after data packets from wirelessbeacon 114 are received, the settings for the interactions may beprovided to customer device 118 at a time just after the interactionbetween the customer device and POP display 102 occurs and just beforecontent is displayed to the user.

In certain embodiments, as shown in FIG. 1, POP display 102 includessensors 116. Sensors 116 may provide monitoring of activity in and/oraround the POP display. In certain embodiments, sensors 116 includeproximity sensors that detect activity in the vicinity of POP display102. Proximity sensor may detect activity based on, for example, heat,light (reflected infrared and/or visible light), sound, and/or images.Examples of sensors 116 include, but are not limited to, ambient lightsensors, passive infrared sensors, active infrared sensors, and imagebased detection sensors. Other examples include accelerometers,temperature sensors, weight sensors, cameras, and sensors that detectwhen a product has been dispensed or when a display needs to berestocked.

Sensors 116 may be used to measure and record (and, in some embodiments,timestamp in combination with clock 113) activity around the display andsave these measurements in memory 110. These measurements and recordingsmay provide information that can be used for detailed analysis of thelevel of traffic around POP display 102 by time. The analysis mayinclude determining information such as, but not limited to, how manypeople walk past the display, how many people stop to look at thedisplay, when a door is opened, how long the door is opened, and whetherproducts are removed. Such analysis may include measuring the timing ofthe activity, such as how long a potential customer stood in front ofthe display, commonly referred to as dwell time. Other potentialanalyses include, but are not limited to, how many shoppers passed by(divided into buckets of time), the average dwell time per shopper,and/or counts of shoppers that had smartphones (customer devices 118)equipped with software package 122. Measurement data from sensors 116stored in memory 110 may be transmitted (broadcast) in data packets sentout by wireless beacon 114. The data packets with the measurement datamay be received by, for example, customer devices 118, network gateway710, and/or data collection device 711 to then be transmitted to aremote server (e.g., server 126).

In certain embodiments, sensors 116 include a proximity sensor thatmonitors activity only within a defined range (e.g., a defined distance)from POP display 102. Sensor data may also be used in a transmissionthrottling scheme as described herein (e.g., a particularly crowdedstore might dictate the use of a different transmission). Additionally,as described herein, the connection between wireless beacons 114 and/orcustomer devices 118 may be utilized to share information between POPdisplays 102.

In some embodiments, a data packet broadcast by wireless beacon 114includes information regarding assessment of the state of one or morecomponents on POP display 102. Server 126 may receive the data packet tomonitor the status of POP display 102 and its components. For example,the data packet may include information regarding an amount of batterypower remaining in battery 106. Battery power remaining information maybe used by server 126 to estimate a remaining operation lifetime of POPdisplay 102. The battery information may also be used to alert theretail location that POP display 102 is nearing an end of its usefuloperation. Examples of other component states that may be assessed andprovided in the data packet include the state of circuit board 112 ormemory 110 (e.g., errors in operation of the circuit board and/ormemory), the state of an electronic display on POP display 102, state ofclock 113, and operation or status of sensors 116. Assessment of thestates of the components may also include assessment of whether acomponent is active, inactive, in a lower power mode, etc.

In some embodiments, a data packet broadcast by wireless beacon 114includes information regarding assessment of one or more conditionsand/or a status of POP display 102. For example, the data packet mayinclude information regarding one or more conditions and/or a statusassessed using image processing of captured images of POP display 102,as described herein. In some embodiments, the data packet includesinformation about the presence of one or more components on POP display102. For example, as described herein, the data packet may includeinformation regarding assessment of the presence (or lack of presence)of additional merchandising materials and/or products on POP display102. The data packet may also include information regarding whethercomponents coupled to and shipped with POP display 102 have been removedfrom POP display 102. For example, the data packet may includeassessment if sensors or cameras have been removed from POP display 102,which can affect the effectiveness of the POP display.

In certain embodiments, information recorded from sensors 116 and/orother components on POP displays 102 as well as information recorded oncustomer devices 118 is transmitted and stored in server 126 asinformation 130. Information recorded on customer devices 118 mayinclude any information or data relating to interactions between thecustomer devices and wireless beacons 114, interactions between thecustomer devices and server 126, other interactions involving thecustomer devices, and data obtained by the customer devices such asdevice sensor data (e.g., position and/or movement measurement data)and/or application data from the software package. In some embodiments,recorded information may be stored in memory cache 124 on customerdevice 118 before being transmitted to server 126. The recordedinformation stored in memory cache 124 may include information recordedon customer device and/or information recorded from sensors 116 on POPdisplays 102 (after the data is transmitted to the customer device viawireless beacon 114). In some embodiments, proximity sensor data is usedby server 126 along with position information obtained through wirelesstransceiver 120B on customer device 118 to improve the accuracy ofdetermining location information (e.g., location information related tolocation of wireless beacons and POP displays).

In certain embodiments, it may be desirable to only allow wirelessbeacons to broadcast when there is activity near the wireless beacon.Allowing wireless beacons to only broadcast with nearby activity mayallow a large number (e.g., high density) of wireless beacons to belocated in a single retail location as not all of the wireless beaconswill be actively broadcasting at the same time. In certain embodiments,one or more sensors 116 are used in combination with wireless beacon 114to allow the wireless beacon to operate in a low power(non-broadcasting) mode while located in a retail location and onlyactively broadcast when nearby activity is detected. For example, sensor116 may be a proximity sensor that detects activity within a selecteddistance from wireless beacon 114. When no activity is detected bysensor 116 (e.g., there is an absence of activity), wireless beacon 114may enter a low power (sleep or non-broadcasting) mode. In the low powermode, wireless beacon 114 does not respond or provide pusb/pull events,described herein, as the wireless beacon is not broadcasting any datapackets. If sensor 116 detects any activity (e.g., via proximitydetection of a customer/user), wireless beacon 114 may be switched to anactive (broadcasting) mode substantially instantaneously. Wirelessbeacon 114 may then be active for any pusb/pull events or contentrequests associated with customer device 118.

In certain embodiments, wireless beacon 114 is programmed to activelybroadcast a wireless signal when the wireless beacon first arrives atretail location 200 (e.g., operate in an active broadcasting mode).Actively broadcasting the wireless signal may include broadcasting datapackets at a high rate or repetitively broadcasting data packets at highrate. Actively broadcasting the wireless signal allows receiving devices(e.g., customer devices 118 and/or network gateways 710) to readilyreceive the data packets and to identify that wireless beacon 114 is atretail location 200.

After a selected period of time, wireless beacon 114 may enter a lowerpower mode to reduce power consumption and save battery power. The lowerpower mode may include broadcasting the wireless signal less frequently.Broadcasting the wireless signal less frequently, however, may decreasethe accuracy in analyzing interactions or other characteristics ofwireless beacon 114 as less information may be received about thewireless beacon by a remote server (e.g., server 126). In certainembodiments, as described herein, sensors 116 located on POP display 102include an accelerometer. The accelerometer may be used to detect orassess movement of POP display 102.

If wireless beacon 114 is in the lower power mode, movement of POPdisplay 102 may indicate that the POP display is being moved to a newlocation (e.g., being moved from the back of the store to the front ofthe store or to a more desirable location in the store for customerinteraction). When movement is detected or assessed by theaccelerometer, the accelerometer may add information regarding themovement of POP display 102 to data packets in the wireless signalbroadcast by wireless beacon 114. In certain embodiments, wirelessbeacon 114 stores the information regarding the movement of POP display102 and later adds the information to data packets that are broadcast bythe wireless beacon. For example, the information may be added to datapackets sent during normal operation of wireless beacon 114 (e.g.,regular broadcasts by the wireless beacon in the low power mode or inthe active broadcasting mode). In some embodiments, wireless beacon 114may broadcast data packets with the information regarding the movementof POP display 102 in response to movement being detected by theaccelerometer. The data packets with the movement information may bereceived by the remote server. Having the movement information mayincrease the accuracy in analyzing interactions or other characteristicsof wireless beacon 114. In some embodiments, wireless beacon 114 mayenter the active broadcasting mode (e.g., begin actively broadcastingthe wireless signal) when movement is detected by the accelerometer inaddition to broadcasting data packets with the additional information.

In some embodiments, POP display 102 includes other sensors 116 thatprovide additional measurements. For example, sensors 116 may include anaccelerometer that is used to detect when product is added or removedfrom POP display 102. As another example, POP display 102 may be mountedon a door such as a freezer case door found in a grocery store. Theaccelerometer on POP display 102 may be used to detect when the door isopened and closed. This information may be correlated with otherinformation to determine, for example, how many people walk past thedisplay, how many people stop to look at the display, how long a personlooks at items displayed in the freezer before opening the door, howlong the door is opened, and whether products are removed from thefreezer. Yet another example is a light sensor may be used to determinewhen the display was unpacked and when the store is opened or closed (asdescribed below, this may be used to determine the actual deploymentrate for a set of POP displays). Many POP displays are never deployedand the use of sensors 116 may allow tracking of POP display deploymentand addressing such deployment issues based on the deploymentinformation collected.

At some retail locations, products may be displayed and/or be able to beremoved from multiple locations inside the retail location. For example,products may be displayed on both POP display 102 and a product shelfnear the POP display or elsewhere in the store. Customers may be able toremove products from either POP display 102 or the product shelf andpurchase the product at the retail location (e.g., at a register in theretail location). SKU (stock keeping unit) numbers may be readily usedto track how many products are sold in the given retail location (e.g.,how many products with a given SKU are sold at a given retail location).This SKU information, however, does not discern between where theproduct was picked up from by the customer (e.g., either POP display 102or the product shelf).

As described herein, POP display 102 may include sensors 116 that detectwhen products are added to and/or removed from the POP display. Forexample, sensors 116 may include accelerometers, weight sensors,proximity sensors, image sensors, and/or other sensors that allowtracking of the activity of product being added to and/or removed fromPOP display 102. In certain embodiments, additional sensors are placedon the product shelf. The sensors on the product shelf may includesensors substantially similar to sensors 116 on POP display 102 and/orother sensors suitable for tracking the activity of addition and/orremoval of product from the product shelf. In some embodiments, thesensors on the product shelf are coupled to the processor or circuitboard on POP display 102 (e.g., the sensors on the product shelf maywirelessly transmit activity data to the processor on the POP display).

Product add/removal data from sensors 116 on POP display 102 may becombined with product add/removal data from the sensors on the productshelf for assessment of the data. The product add/removal data from POPdisplay 102 and product add/removal data from the product shelf may becombined with SKU purchase data to determine the relative amounts ofproduct being purchased from POP display 102 versus the product shelf.The determination of the relative amounts of product being purchasedfrom the POP display versus the product shelf may be used to assess aneffectiveness of the POP display in selling the product.

In some embodiments, the products displayed on and purchased from POPdisplay 102 and/or the product shelf include multiple SKUs on theproducts. Multiple SKUs may be used to allow additional data to becollected at the point of purchase (e.g., using a point-of-sale system).Data collected at the point of purchase may be used in combination withproduct add/removal data from POP display 102 and product add/removaldata from the product shelf to assess when other sensor data from thePOP display is missed. For example, sensor data from POP display 102that indicates the POP display is put up or taken down, or moved fromthe front of the store to the back of the store or vice versa, may bemissed and thus it may not be clear from where certain products wereremoved (as product may be moved from displays that are no longer usedback to the shelf). The data collected from the multiple SKUs collectedat the point of purchase may then be used in combination with productadd/removal data from POP display 102 and product add/removal data fromthe product shelf to determine relative amounts of product sold usingthe POP display versus the product shelf.

In some embodiments, as described herein, a device (e.g., a device witha sensor) may be used to detect when products are added to and/orremoved from a product shelf. In some embodiments, the product shelf isassociated with a POP display. Such a device may be used to track stockof the product and, in some cases, provide low stock or out-of-stocknotifications to employees or other personnel associated with the retaillocation of the product shelf.

FIG. 21 depicts a top view representation of an embodiment of a productshelf with a device used for assessing product stock on the productshelf. FIG. 22 depicts a front view representation of an embodiment ofthe product shelf and device of FIG. 21. Product shelf 1050 may be usedto support one or more retail products. For example, product shelf 1050may be used to display retail products in customer area of a retaillocation or used to store retail products in a storage area of theretail location. In some embodiments, product shelf 1050 is associatedwith a POP display (e.g., POP display 102 described herein).

In certain embodiments, device 1052 is placed on product shelf 1050(e.g., the device is placed on the surface of the product shelf). Device1052 may be, for example, a mat, a covering, or another structure placedon product shelf 1050 with a surface that supports retail products beingplaced on the device. Retail products 1054 may be placed on top ofdevice 1052 on product shelf 1050. In some embodiments, device 1052includes retail product photos and/or description on the top surface ofthe device. Such photos and/or description may be used to specifyinformation about the retail product that is to be placed on device1052. In some embodiments, the photos/description on device 1052 includeidentifying information for the device including, for example,identifying information such as the unique identifier for a wirelessbeacon (described below) inside the device. Identifying information maybe used to locate device 1052 when inventory status updates are providedby the wireless beacon.

In certain embodiments, device 1052 includes pressure-sensitive surface1056. Surface 1056 may be used to assess an inventory status of retailproducts 1054. For example, the inventory status of retail products 1054may change as products are added/removed from device 1052 and productshelf 1050.

FIG. 23 depicts a side view representation of an embodiment of device1052. In certain embodiments, surface 1056 includes resistive film 1058positioned between conductive layers 1060A, 1060B. Resistive film 1058may be, for example, a piezoresistive film. Resistive film 1058 maychange resistance as different downward force (e.g., weight or pressure)is applied to the film. Conductive layers 1060A, 1060B may includevarying patterns of conductors. The patterns may include, for example,grid, cross-hatched, and/or solid-sheet conductors. These conductors maybe attached to resistive film 1058 using an adhesive film. Conductivelayers 1060A, 1060B and resistive film 1058 may then be sealed insidethe material for device 1052. The material for device 1052 may be aninsulating material or protective material such as a rubber, plastic,and/or cardboard material. Most of the materials may diffuse thepressure from grit or small particles that might otherwise punctureresistive film 1058 or create false readings by creating “dimples” inthe resistive film (which may cause unrepresentatively-low resistancereadings). Conductive layers 1060A, 1060B and resistive film 1058 may besealed inside device material to protect the conductive layers and theresistive film from the external environment. Device 1052 may be formed,for example, by layering sheets of material (including conductive layers1060A, 1060B and resistive film 1058) or screen-printing one or more ofthe layers of material. In certain embodiments, device 1052 has athickness of at most about 1″, at most about 0.5″, or at most about0.25″.

In certain embodiments, resistor 1062 is positioned (e.g., embedded)between conductive layers 1060A, 1060B. Resistor 1062 may be, forexample, a ceramic or printed resistor. Resistor 1062 may be matched toresistive film 1058. Electrical connections to resistor 1062 may includeground, power, and signal connections. Changes in resistance ofresistive film 1058 due to changes in weight applied to surface 1056 maybe measured by applying a voltage between ground and power and measuringthe voltage produced on the signal lead. In certain embodiments, theresistance of resistive film 1058 increases as retail product 1054 isremoved from surface 1056 and decreases as retail products are added tothe surface. In some embodiments, the changes in resistance are assessedbased on a specific retail product configured to be placed on device1052 (e.g., resistance measurements are specific to specific types ofproducts (laundry detergent, toilet paper, paper towels, beverages,etc.)).

In certain embodiments, wireless beacon 114 is positioned inside device1052, as shown in FIG. 23. In some embodiments, wireless beacon 114 islocated at or near a front edge of device 1052. Locating wireless beacon114 at or near the front edge of device 1052 may increase the wirelesssignal transmission range of the wireless beacon. In some embodiments,device 1052 may include a lip or other protrusion that has a thicknessthat allows wireless beacon 114 to be placed inside the protrusion,which may increase the transmission range of the wireless beacon.

Wireless beacon 114 may include a processor, a memory, and wirelesstransmitter along with a battery to provide power to the wirelessbeacon. In some embodiments, the battery is a printed battery. Wirelessbeacon 114 may be coupled to resistor 1062. For example, wireless beacon114 may be coupled to the ground, power, and signal connections ofresistor 1062. In some embodiments, such electrical connections are madewith printable circuit components as described herein. The processor inwireless beacon 114 may assess resistance changes in resistive film1058. The changes in resistance assessed by the processor in wirelessbeacon 114 may be used to assess the inventory status of retail product1054 on device 1052. The inventory status assessed by wireless beacon114 may be added to a data packet broadcast in a wireless signal by thewireless beacon transmitter. The data packet may also include the uniqueidentifier for the wireless beacon. The unique identifier may also beassociated with device 1052 and/or specific retail product selected forthe device.

In some embodiments, the inventory status provided by wireless beacon114 is an inventory level value. For example, wireless beacon 114 mayprovide the inventory status as “empty”, “full”, “one-quarter”,“one-half”, or other fractional inventory level values as desired. Insome embodiments, wireless beacon 114 may immediately broadcast the datapacket with the inventory status if the inventory status (e.g.,inventory level value) is assessed to be below a selected value. Forexample, if the inventory status of retail product 1054 falls belowone-quarter full, wireless beacon 114 may immediately broadcast theinventory status such that a recipient of the inventory status canrestock or resupply the retail product to the product shelf.

The inventory status data packet may be received by a wireless devicelocated at the retail location. For example, the inventory status datapacket may be received by a wireless network gateway and/or a datacollection device located at the retail location. Typically, thewireless device is located within a transmission range of wirelessbeacon 114 (e.g., about 500 feet or less from the wireless beacon). Insome embodiments, the wireless device is used to notify store personnelof the inventory status of retail products (e.g., when stock is low). Insome embodiments, the wireless device may provide notification toanother entity via the Internet, a WAN, or other communication network.Such notification may be, for example, to a local distributor that moreretail product is needed at the retail location.

In some embodiments, wireless beacon 114 is programmed to begin activelybroadcasting at a certain time. For example, wireless beacon 114 maybegin actively broadcasting at a time device 1052 is scheduled to arriveat the retail location. In some embodiments, signal strength betweenwireless beacon 114 and the wireless device receiving the broadcast fromthe wireless beacon (e.g., the wireless network gateway and/or datacollection device) may be used to assess a relative position of device1052 within the retail location. For example, the signal strength may beused to assess if device 1052 is in the front (consumer portion) or back(storage portion) of the retail location. Additionally, signal strength(or lack of signal) may be used to assess when device 1052 has beendisposed in the trash or is no longer in use.

In certain embodiments, POP display 102 includes one or more cameras140. In some embodiments, cameras 140 are included in or associated withsensors 116. Cameras 140 may include, for example, a camera chip suchas, but not limited to, a CCD camera or CMOS sensor. In certainembodiments, cameras 140 are embedded in POP display 102. For example,cameras 140 may be embedded in cardboard used for POP display 102. Incertain embodiments, cameras 140 are used to capture images of thesurroundings of POP display 102. In some embodiments, cameras 140 areused to capture images of the surroundings of POP display 102 when thePOP display is placed at a retail location. For example, cameras 140 maycapture images when POP display 102 is turned on at the retail location(e.g., when wireless beacon 114 is activated). In some embodiments,cameras 140 include cameras directed in multiple directions. Forexample, cameras 140 may be directed to capture 360° images of POPdisplay 102's surroundings.

Images captured using cameras 140 may be stored in memory 110 on POPdisplay 102. In certain embodiments, the captured images are transferredto server 126. For example, the captured images may be transferred alongwith information transferred from POP display 102 to server 126 asdescribed herein. In some embodiments, the captured images stored inmemory 110 are transmitted (broadcast) in data packets sent out bywireless beacon 114. The data packets with the captured images may bereceived by, for example, customer devices 118, network gateway 710,and/or data collection device 711 to then be transmitted to server 126.

In certain embodiments, server 126 associates the captured images withPOP display 102 and assesses a location of the POP display based on thecaptured images. For example, the captured images may be compared toimages captured from POP displays with known locations to assess thelocation of POP display 102. The captured images may also include otherinformation (e.g., a landmark or other specific indicator of location)and/or other image details that are used to determine a location of POPdisplay 102. For example, OCR (optical character recognition) may beused on the images to determine words and/or numbers in the images andthen a keyword search may be used to determine the location of POPdisplay 102. The determined location of POP display 102 may be stored ininformation 130 on server 126. The determined location of POP display102 may include a specific retail location and/or an area inside aretail location (e.g., an area of a store such as the back or the frontof the store).

In some embodiments, cameras 140 are used to retake or captureadditional images when POP display 102 is moved. Sensors 116 located onPOP display 102 may include an accelerometer that detects that POPdisplay 102 has been moved (and is now stationary). The detectedmovement may indicate or trigger that additional images are to becaptured by cameras 140. In some embodiments, the additional images areused by server 126 to determine a new location of POP display 102. Insome embodiments, the additional images are used to determine if POPdisplay 102 has been moved between different areas inside the retaillocation (e.g., the POP display has been moved from the front to back ofthe store or vice versa).

In some embodiments, cameras 140 are used to capture images of activityin and/or around POP display 102 when the POP display is placed at aretail location. In certain embodiments, a processor on circuit board104 (e.g., controller 112) assesses activity information in and/oraround the POP display based on the captured images. For example, imageprocessing of the captured images may be used to assess activity suchas, but not limited to, customer traffic counts, selected aspects ofcustomer traffic, customer gesture recognition, and customer eyetracking. Selected aspects of customer traffic may include, but not belimited to, dwell time, estimated age, gender, or race as well asrelationships between different aspects. Eye tracking may include, forexample, whether a customer looked at POP display 102 or not and/or forhow long the customer looked at the POP display. The assessed activityfrom the captured images may be stored in memory 110 on POP display 102.In certain embodiments, the assessed activity is timestamped and/orlocation coded when stored in memory 110.

In certain embodiments, signals from wireless beacons 114 placed in POPdisplays 102 and/or merchandising materials are used to triggeractivation of one or more functions on customer device 118. For example,a signal from wireless beacons 114 may trigger activation of a camerafunction on customer device 118 (such as a camera function on asmartphone). When the camera function is engaged on customer device 118,image recognition capabilities using artificial intelligence (forexample, neural networks and/or learning algorithms on the customerdevice) may be used to determine aspects of the environment surroundingthe consumer (e.g., surrounding customer device 118). Aspects of theenvironment may include, but not be limited to, the direction a consumeris facing, which products and/or category the consumer is looking at,product stocking conditions, product pricing, the presence of otherpromotional material, and/or a shelf layout. In some embodiments,virtual or augmented reality functionality on customer device 118 mayoverlay additional virtual information over the captured images. Theadditional virtual information may include, but not be limited to,promotional messages, additional product or category information orbenefits, dosage or usage information/restrictions, in-store navigationdiagrams, special pricing, and/or recipes.

In certain embodiments, the assessed activity from the images capturedby cameras 140 is transferred to server 126. In some embodiments, theassessed activity from the images captured by cameras 140 is transferredto server 126 along with other data from sensors 116. In someembodiments, data for the assessed activity stored in memory 110 istransmitted (broadcast) in data packets sent out by wireless beacon 114along with the unique identifier for the wireless beacon. The datapackets with the assessed activity data may be received by, for example,customer devices 118, network gateway 710, and/or data collection device711 to then be transmitted to server 126. Server 126 may associate theassessed activity with a particular POP display 102 based on identifyinginformation received along with the assessed activity data (e.g., theunique identifier for wireless beacon 114 and/or image information usedto assess location of the POP display).

In some embodiments, cameras 140 (and/or other cameras positioned in oraround POP display 102) are used to capture images of the POP displayitself. For example, images of POP display 102 may include images ofshelves (or other product display areas) of the POP display and/oradvertisement or informational areas of the POP display. Imageprocessing of the captured images may be used to assess one or moreconditions and/or a status of POP display 102. For example, imageprocessing of the captured images may be used to determine a presence(or lack of presence) of merchandising materials on POP display 102. Insome embodiments, image processing of the captured images may be used todetermine a presence (or lack of presence) of components (e.g., sensorsor other components coupled to and/or shipped with the display) on POPdisplay 102 and/or sections of the POP display (e.g., particular partsof the POP display). Additionally, image processing of the capturedimages may be used to determine an inventory of products on POP display102. Image processing of images captured of POP display 102 may occur onthe POP display itself or on server 126 (after images are transferred tothe server as described above).

As described herein, POP display 102 may include one or more sensors 116that collect data about an environment surrounding the POP display(e.g., monitor activity in and/or around the POP display). In certainembodiments, one or more of sensors 116 are capable of transmitting(e.g., broadcasting) collected sensor data and/or data packetsindicating the presence of the sensors. In some embodiments, the datapacket indicating the presence of sensor 116 includes unique identifiersfor the sensors. In certain embodiments, a data collection device islocated at a retail location to receive and collect data transmitted bysensors 116.

FIG. 2 depicts a block diagram of an embodiment of retail location 200with data collection device 142 along with POP display 102 with sensor116. In some embodiments, data collection device 142 is a wirelessnetwork gateway (e.g., similar to network gateway 710 described herein).In some embodiments, data collection device 142 is a data collectiondevice similar to data collection device 711 described herein. Datacollection device 142 may, however, be any data collection devicesuitable for receiving transmissions broadcast by sensors 116. In someembodiments, data collection device 142 is capable of rebroadcastingtransmissions received by the data collection device.

In certain embodiments, data collection device 142 is permanently (orsubstantially permanently) positioned at a retail location. For example,data collection device 142 may be installed at the retail location andused to collect sensor data over many cycles of POP displays 102 beingintroduced at retail location 200. As many POP displays 102 may beintroduced and then removed over time as compared to data collectiondevice 142, the POP displays may be “substantially temporary” while thedata collection device is “substantially permanent” at retail location200.

In certain embodiments, data collection device 142 is used to detect thepresence, absence, and/or signal strength of sensors 116 on POP displays102 as the POP displays are introduced and/or removed from retaillocation 200. Detecting presence, absence, and/or signal strength ofsensors 116 allows data collection device 142 to assess the execution ofPOP displays 102 (e.g., assess the activity of adding/removing POPdisplays from the retail location and where the POP displays arepositioned at the retail location). In addition, data collection device142 may collect sensor data from sensors 116. The sensor data may bestored on data collection device 142 for later access and/or transmittedto a remote server for data analysis (e.g., transmitted to server 126).

FIG. 3 depicts a block diagram representation of an embodiment of aninteraction between customer device 118, wireless beacons 114, andserver 126. In certain embodiments, customer device 118 receives firstBluetooth LE packet 700 from first wireless beacon 114A. First wirelessbeacon 114A may be, for example, a wireless beacon located at or near aretail entrance (e.g., a store entrance). In certain embodiments, firstwireless beacon 114A is located in an area where customer device 118 isable to communicate with server 126 (e.g., the customer device haswireless connectivity (either through WiFi or cellular transmission withthe server). Upon receipt of first Bluetooth LE packet 700, SDK 125 mayinspect memory cache 124 and determine if the memory cache containsup-to-date data (content) for first wireless beacon 114A. If the contentis not up-to-date in memory cache 124, then SDK may contact 702 server126 (e.g., the content server) and retrieve 704 the latest content(e.g., content 128) associated with first wireless beacon 114A. Theretrieved content may be stored in memory cache 124.

In some embodiments, server 126 may be aware of the location of firstwireless beacon 114A and/or other wireless beacons (identifiable bytheir unique identifiers) associated with the first wireless beacon. Theother wireless beacons (e.g., second wireless beacons 114B, shown inFIG. 3) may be other wireless beacons that are nearby first wirelessbeacon 114A. In certain embodiments, second wireless beacons 114B arewireless beacons that are located in the same store as, or in proximityto, first wireless beacon 114A. In some embodiments, second wirelessbeacons 114B are wireless beacons in other stores at other locationsthat are associated with the particular venue of first wireless beacon114A (e.g., the beacons are associated with a single retail chain).

Knowing the association between first wireless beacon 114A and secondwireless beacons 114B, server 126 may, therefore, transmit the latestcontent for the second wireless beacons in addition to transmitting thelatest content for the first wireless beacon. The content for both firstwireless beacon 114A and second wireless beacons 114B may be stored inmemory cache 124. Transmitting the latest data for second wirelessbeacons 114B may improve customer device 118 user's experience asinformation for each subsequent wireless beacon encountered may alreadybe on the customer device and accessed immediately as the subsequentbeacons are encountered (e.g., when SDK 125 receives second Bluetooth LEpacket 706 from the second wireless beacons). This may be particularlyadvantageous in areas where there is limited or no data connectivity(e.g., where it would otherwise be impossible to download the contentassociated with a newly encountered wireless beacon). For example, whencustomer device 118 enters a store and detects first wireless beacon114A, the customer device may automatically download the latest contentassociated with all second wireless beacons 114B in the store and storethe content in memory cache 124 rather than incrementally downloadingcontent as the customer device encounters each second wireless beacon.Incremental downloading may be slower and/or may not be possible as onewanders deeper into a physical structure and customer device 118 loseswireless network connectivity (e.g., enters cellular dead spots withinthe structure). Again, SDK 125 manages this functionality and, from theperspective of mobile application 127, the SDK notifies the mobileapplication of push and pull events (described herein) as well asdelivering any associated content from memory cache 124 to the mobileapplication. Mobile application 127 may then display content from memorycache 124 to the customer on display 119. FIGS. 4A-4K depict examples ofcontent being displayed on display 119. In some embodiments, display 119allows the customer to interact with content displayed by mobileapplication 127 (e.g., the content may include a menu of options forselection by the customer).

An additional advantage of SDK 125 is that the SDK may transmit toserver 126 location information available from customer device 118 aboutthe customer device's location along with the unique identifier receivedfrom wireless beacon 114. In some embodiments, the location informationis sent to server 126 when a request for content is made from theserver. In certain embodiments, location information about the locationof customer device 118 includes GPS data (such as latitude/longitudedata) from the customer device (e.g., using built-in GPS on the customerdevice). In some embodiments, location information about the location ofcustomer device 118 includes detected WiFi networks (e.g., WiFi networksaccessed by the customer device). In some embodiments, mobileapplication 127 provides SDK 125 with the location of customer device118 (e.g., the mobile application may tell the SDK which storeassociated with the mobile application at which the customer device islocated). The location information of customer device 118 along with theunique identifier from wireless beacon 114 may allow server 126 toidentify the physical or retail location (e.g., a specific store numberfor a retail chain) of the wireless beacon having the unique identifier.

FIG. 5 depicts a flowchart of an embodiment of method 800. Method 800may be used to assess a location of wireless beacon 114 and POP display102. In 802, a plurality of POP displays 102 and their wireless beacons114 may be associated with a selected campaign. As described herein, a“campaign” refers to an advertising, a marketing, or a promotionalcampaign associated with a particular retail product or a grouping ofproducts associated with one campaign. For example, the campaign may bea special sale for a limited time for the particular retail product. Insome embodiments, the campaign is associated with specific retailers,specific stores within a retail chain, and/or specific geographiclocations. In some embodiments, the campaign has a selected time periodassociated with the campaign (e.g., the campaign is active for aselected amount of time).

In some embodiments, associating wireless beacons 114 with the selectedcampaign in 802 includes associating the wireless beacons with aselected campaign associated with a specific retailer. For example,wireless beacons 114 may be designated for a specific advertisingcampaign intended for a specific retailer. In 804, the wireless beaconsmay be randomly distributed to a plurality of retail locations. Eventhough the selected campaign may be known for wireless beacons 114, theexact final location of POP displays 102 with the wireless beacons istypically unknown (as described below for step 314 in FIG. 11). Thus,each of the retail locations that receive the randomly distributed POPdisplays 102 may be associated with the same selected campaign.

After POP displays 102, along with wireless beacons 114, are placed attheir intended locations and the wireless beacons are activated (e.g.,activated at either their final display location or a temporary storagelocation such as a store back (or storage) area), one or more differentmethods may be used to assess a retail location of each of the POPdisplays (e.g., the store at which each POP display is located). Forexample, as shown in FIG. 5, method 806A, method 806B, method 806C, andmethod 806D may each be used, either alone or in combination, to, in808, assess the retail location of a selected POP display 102 andwireless beacon 114. Methods 806A, 806B, 806C, 806D may be used toassess the retail location of multiple POP displays 102. In someembodiments, one method may be used to assess the retail location of allthe POP displays associated with the selected campaign. In someembodiments, one method may be used to assess the retail location of afirst POP display while another method is used to assess the retaillocation of a second POP display, a third POP display, a fourth POPdisplay, etc.

FIG. 6 depicts a flowchart of an embodiment of method 806A used toassess a location of a POP display. Once POP display 102 is placed at aretail location (e.g., in 804, shown in FIG. 5), method 806A may be usedto assess the retail location of the POP display using interaction withcustomer device 118 and SDK 125 on the customer device. In 900, customerdevice 118 may receive a packet (e.g., a data packet such as packet 700,shown in FIG. 3) from wireless beacon 114. The packet may include theunique identifier for wireless beacon 114.

In 902, SDK 125 may combine the received unique identifier along withgeographic information on the location of customer device 118. Forexample, the geographic information may include the geographic locationof customer device 118 such as, but not limited to, latitude andlongitude location or GPS location of the customer device. In 904, SDK125 may then provide the geographic location of customer device 118along with the unique identifier to a remote server (e.g., server 126,shown in FIGS. 1 and 3). In some embodiments, a time stamp from customerdevice 118 is also provided to the remote server. In certainembodiments, SDK 125 provides unique identifiers for a plurality ofwireless beacons along with the geographic location of customer device118.

In 906, the remote server may then assess or determine the retaillocation of wireless beacon 114 with the unique identifier using thegeographic location information provided along with the uniqueidentifier. If multiple unique identifiers are sent to the remoteserver, the remote server may determine the retail location of each ofthe wireless beacons with the unique identifiers associated with thegeographic location information. The determined retail location may be,for example, a retail store number associated with a retail chainassociated with the selected campaign. In some embodiments, the retaillocation is determined using the geographic location in combination withother information available to the remote server, including, but notlimited to, information from other customer devices and/or informationabout retail locations associated with the selected campaign. In someembodiments, the remote server assesses the time stamp received from SDK125 in combination with the geographic location of customer device 118,the unique identifier, and the retail locations associated with theselected campaign. Assessing the time stamp may allow the remote serverto assess if the POP display is active during a selected time periodassociated with the selected campaign for the POP display.

Information from other customer devices may include, but not be limitedto, geographic location information from interaction of other customerdevices with the wireless beacon. Thus, in some embodiments, the remoteserver may use information from multiple customer devices to determinethe retail location of a wireless beacon. The information about retaillocations associated with the selected campaign may be provided to theremote server or obtainable by the remote server using information inputearlier about the selected campaign. In some embodiments, the remoteserver stores the retail location information along with the uniqueidentifier in a database (e.g., information 130 on server 126, shown inFIG. 1).

The retail location determined in 906 may be provided to method 800,shown in FIG. 5, to either be used as the assessed retail location in808 or used in other methods (e.g., 806B or 806C) to determine theretail locations of other POP displays. In some embodiments, the retaillocation determined in 906 may be used to assess if the location of thePOP display and the wireless beacon has changed. For example, the remoteserver may look up the unique identifier and assess if a previouslocation for the unique identifier was recorded to assess if any changein location has occurred.

FIG. 7 depicts a flowchart of an embodiment of method 806B used toassess a location of a POP display. Method 806B may include assessingthe retail location of POP display 102 and wireless beacon 114 using thepresence of other detected wireless beacons (POP displays) with knownretail locations in proximity to the wireless beacon and interactionwith one or more customer devices 118. In some embodiments, multiplewireless beacons are interacting with a single customer device 118(e.g., the single customer device receives packets from multiplewireless beacons at or around the same time). In some embodiments, thewireless beacons are interacting with multiple customer devices 118 ator around the same time with a remote server receiving information fromthe multiple customer devices (with knowledge of the customer devicesbeing at the same location).

As shown in FIG. 7, method 806B includes determining, at the remoteserver, a retail location of a first POP display in 910. The retaillocation of the first POP display may be determined, for example, usingmethod 806A, shown in FIG. 6, method 806C, shown in FIG. 8, or method806D, shown in FIG. 10. Determining the retail location of the first POPdisplay in 910, as shown in FIG. 7, allows the remote server to know theretail location of the first POP display. In some embodiments, theretail location of the first POP display may be known and provided tothe remote server in 910 (e.g., a separate entity or applicationprovides the retail location of the first POP display or the retaillocation the first POP display is to be sent to is known before beingsent to the location). In some embodiments, the same retail location isdetermined (and then known) for multiple POP displays in 910 (e.g., thesame retail location may be determined (and then known) for two or morePOP displays). The remote server may associate together the multiple POPdisplays at the same retail location.

After the location of the first POP display(s) is determined (or known)in 910, customer device 118 may receive a first data packet (or a set offirst data packets for multiple POP displays) with the unique identifierfor the first POP display(s) in 912. At or around the same time,customer device 118 may receive a second data packet from a second POPdisplay in 914. The second POP display may have a retail location thatis unknown to the remote server. The second data packet may include theunique identifier for the second POP display.

In 916, SDK 125 on customer device 118 may provide the unique identifierfor the first POP display(s) and the unique identifier for the secondPOP display to the remote server (e.g., server 126, shown in FIGS. 1 and3). In 918, the remote server may determine, based on the remote serverreceiving both the unique identifier for the first POP display(s) andthe unique identifier for the second POP display at the same time, thatthe second POP display is at the same retail location as the first POPdisplay(s). Put another way, the remote server determines that thesecond POP display is at the same retail location as the first POPdisplay(s) because the remote server receives both unique identifiersfrom the same customer device, which is at the retail location. Theretail location of the second POP display determined in 918 may beprovided to method 800, shown in FIG. 5, to be used as the assessedretail location in 808.

In some embodiments, the remote server may receive the unique identifierfor the first POP display(s) and the unique identifier for the secondPOP display from different customer devices in 916 (e.g., two or moredifferent mobile devices). In such embodiments, however, the remoteserver may receive other identifying information (e.g., geographiclocation information or specific content related information) thatallows the remote server to associate the unique identifier for thefirst POP display(s) with the unique identifier for the second POPdisplay and determine that the POP displays are at the same retaillocation in 918.

FIG. 8 depicts a flowchart of an embodiment of method 806C used toassess a location of a POP display. Method 806C may include assessingthe retail location of POP display 102 and wireless beacon 114 usingcommunication with a network gateway or data collection device locatedat the retail location. In certain embodiments, as shown in FIGS. 1 and3, network gateway 710 and/or data collection device 711 are located atretail location 200. One or more network gateways 710 and/or datacollection devices 711 may be installed at known retail locations forinterfacing with POP displays after the POP displays are distributed andreach the retail location. Network gateways 710 may be, for example,permanent network gateways installed at each retail location in a retailchain or supply chain with the location of each network gateway beingknown. Thus, for POP display distribution, the retail locations ofmultiple network gateways 710 are known by the remote server. Datacollection devices 711 may also be permanent data collection deviceswith the locations of the data collection devices being known by theremote server.

In certain embodiments, network gateway 710 is a wireless networkgateway. For example, network gateway 710 may be any hardware (e.g., aprocessor and one or more wireless antenna) capable of networkedcommunication over one or more wireless communication networks and/orinterfacing between wireless communication networks (e.g., interfacingbetween a local area network (LAN) and a wide area network (WAN)).Communication networks for network gateway 710 may include, but not belimited to, WANs cellular networks, wireless networks, and the Internet.In certain embodiments, network gateway 710 is connected to the

Internet and is capable of interfacing and communicating using BluetoothLE, WiFi, sub-gigahertz radio, cellular, and other longer-range radiobands.

In certain embodiments, data collection device 711 is a wireless datacollection device that includes hardware (e.g., a processor and one ormore wireless antenna) capable of networked communication over one ormore wireless communication networks. In certain embodiments, datacollection device 711 is used for communication over a local areanetwork (LAN). Data collection device 711 may, however, also be capableof communicating over a wide area network (WAN)). Data collection device711 may be capable of interfacing and communicating using Bluetooth LE,WiFi, sub-gigahertz radio, cellular, and other radio bands.

In some embodiments, data collection device 711 is used to relay databetween wireless beacons 114 and network gateway 710. For example,broadcasts from wireless beacons 114 may be received by data collectiondevice 711 and then rebroadcast from the data collection device tonetwork gateway 710 (e.g., data collection device 711 and networkgateway 710 may communicate over a LAN). Network gateway 710 may thentransmit data received from data collection device to server 126 (e.g.,over a WAN). In such embodiments, data collection device 711 may be usedas a repeater at retail location 200 for wireless beacon 114 broadcaststo ensure data broadcast by the wireless beacon reaches network gateway710. Repeating the broadcasting of data from wireless beacons 114 may beuseful, for example, in larger retail locations where network gateway710 (which is used to transmit data to remote server 126) may notreliably receive information from all the wireless beacons at the retaillocation. For example, if a wireless beacon is out of signal range ofnetwork gateway 710, data collection device 711 may be located closer tothe wireless beacon to receive and rebroadcast the wireless signal tothe network gateway. For relatively large retail locations, multipledata collection devices 711 may be used to communicate with networkgateway 710. Using one or more data collection devices 711 to broadcastwireless beacon data to network gateway 710, which then transmits datato remote server 126, allows the network gateway to be used as theprimary communication device with the remote server.

In some embodiments, data collection device 711 includes hardwarecapable of communicating over a wide area network (WAN). In suchembodiments, data collection device 711 may transmit wireless signaldata directly from wireless beacons 114 to remote server 126 over theWAN. Using data collection devices 711 to transmit data to remote server126 may be useful in situations where communication through a singlenetwork gateway is not suitable. It is to be understood that networkgateway 710 and data collection device 711 may be interchangeable in oneor more embodiments as used herein. For example, in embodimentsdescribing the use of network gateway 710, data collection device 711may be used in place of the network gateway, or vice versa.Additionally, in some embodiments described herein, network gateway 710and data collection device 711 may be substantially equivalent devices(e.g., devices capable of communicating over both LANs and WANs).

In some embodiments, wireless beacons 114 include multiple wirelesscommunication network transmission capabilities. For example, wirelessbeacons 114 may be capable of broadcasting data packets over two or moredifferent wireless communication networks substantially simultaneously.In some embodiments, wireless beacons 114 are capable of broadcastingover sub-gigahertz radio (or another longer-range radio band) inaddition to (or substantially simultaneously with) broadcasting overBluetooth LE. Sub-gigahertz broadcasting may provide increased range ofdata transmission as compared to Bluetooth LE (e.g., sub-gigahertz mayhave a transmission range of up to about a mile). Sub-gigahertzbroadcasting may include, for example, broadcasting over the ISM band(UHF). In some embodiments, sub-gigahertz radio includes radio signals(e.g., wireless signals) with a frequency between 100 MHz and 1 GHz.Examples of sub-gigahertz radio bands include, but are not limited to,315 MHz, 433 MHz, 902 MHz, and 928 MHz. In certain embodiments,sub-gigahertz radio signals are tuned to a set frequency withoutfrequency hopping (unlike Bluetooth LE). In some embodiments, otherlonger broadcast range (and detection range) radio bands may be usedinstead of, or in addition to, sub-gigahertz radio bands. For example,broadcast radio bands such as, but not limited to, WiFi, LORA, or ZigBeemay be used in wireless beacons 114, network gateway 710, and/or datacollection device 711. In some embodiments, wireless beacons 114 may beequipped with a communication chip capable of broadcasting over evenlarger distances and directly to the remote server. In such embodiments,wireless beacons 114 may provide data directly to the remote server.

In certain embodiments, wireless beacons 114 are equipped with acommunication chip (e.g., wireless transceiver 120A) capable of bothBluetooth LE and sub-gigahertz broadcasting (or another longer-rangeradio band). While Bluetooth LE may be used for broadcasting to mobiledevices (or other Bluetooth LE capable devices), a larger LAN may beprovided between wireless beacons 114 and network gateway 710 or datacollection device 711 by using the longer broadcast range provided bysub-gigahertz radio (or another longer-range radio band). In someembodiments, network gateway 710 and/or data collection device 711 mayprovide a data collection network (e.g., a LAN for data collection) forcollecting data broadcast 712 by wireless beacons 114 (e.g., uniqueidentifiers, sensor data, etc.) and transmitting the data over acommunication network 714 (e.g., a WAN connected to the remote server).

In certain embodiments, network gateway 710 and/or data collectiondevice 711, shown in FIG. 3, are capable of receiving data packets fromwireless beacons 114 over the LAN network. In certain embodiments, thedata packets include data collected from sensors 116. In someembodiments, sensors 116 are capable of broadcasting data oversub-gigahertz radio (or another longer-range radio band). The databroadcast by sensors 116 may be collected by network gateway 710 and/ordata collection device 711, as described herein. The use ofsub-gigahertz radio (or another longer-range radio band) in networkgateway 710, data collection device 711, and wireless beacons 114 mayallow a larger LAN to be provided at the retail location. In someembodiments, using sub-gigahertz radio (or another longer-range radioband) communication allows a single network gateway (e.g., networkgateway 710) to receive (and/or send) communications from multiplewireless beacons 114 at a single retail location, even a large retaillocation such as a warehouse-type retail location.

In certain embodiments, as shown in FIG. 8, method 806C includes anetwork gateway (e.g., network gateway 710 and/or data collection device711) at a known retail location (e.g., retail location 200) receiving adata packet (e.g., data broadcast 712) from wireless beacon 114 on POPdisplay 102 in 920. The data packet may include the unique identifier ofthe wireless beacon and the POP display. The network gateway may providethe unique identifier to the remote server in response to receiving thedata packet in 922. In some embodiments, the network gateway providesthe unique identifier to the remote server over communication network714 (e.g., cellular network, WiFi network, or the Internet). In someembodiments, the network gateway provides the unique identifier to theremote server using customer device 118. For example, the networkgateway provides the unique identifier along with identifying/locationinformation about the network gateway to SDK 125 on customer device 118.SDK 125 may then provide this information to the remote server whencustomer device 118 communicates with the remote server.

In certain embodiments, a network gateway (or a data collection device)may be placed in a storage location (“depot”) convenient to Direct StoreDelivery (DSD) personnel. Such depots are common for DSD products;however, the inventory of merchandising materials available is difficultto monitor. In such cases, beacons may be attached to merchandisingmaterial—either individual materials or cases of materials—stored in thestorage location. Inventory of the merchandising materials may bemonitored by a network gateway with, for example, a cellular modem forcommunication to a remote server. Monitoring the inventory ofmerchandising material with the network gateway may greatly improve thetimeliness and accuracy regarding availability of materials in depots.

In 924, the remote server may associate the POP display having theunique identifier with the network gateway providing the uniqueidentifier and the retail location of the network gateway. Using thisassociation, the remote server may determine the retail location of thePOP display with the unique identifier because the retail location ofthe associated network gateway is known (e.g., the installation locationof the network gateway is known as described above). In someembodiments, the network gateway associates the POP display having theunique identifier with the retail location of the network gateway andprovides data about the association to the remote server, which thenstores information about the retail location of the POP display. Theretail location of the POP display having the unique identifierdetermined in 924 may be provided to method 800, shown in FIG. 5, to beused as the assessed retail location in 808.

In some embodiments, method 806C includes assessing a signal strengthbetween the POP display with the unique identifier and the networkgateway in 926. The assessed signal strength may be provided to theremote server along with the unique identifier in 922. The remote servermay use the assessed signal strength to determine a specific (orrelatively specific) location of the POP display within the retaillocation in 928. For example, the exact location of the network gatewayat the retail location may be known (e.g., in a server room at theretail location). The assessed signal strength may provide informationthat is used to estimate the distance between the POP display with theunique identifier and the network gateway. From the estimated distance,the specific location of the POP display within the retail location maybe determined (e.g., estimated or approximated).

In certain embodiments, in 926, signal strengths for sub-gigahertz radio(or another longer-range radio band) signals (e.g., data packets)received in network gateway 710 from wireless beacons 114 (on POPdisplays 102) are used to assess locations of the wireless beacons (andthe POP displays). In certain embodiments, as described above, networkgateway 710 provides (e.g., transmits) the signal strength data toanother processor (e.g., server 126 in 922) that assesses the locationsof the wireless beacons from the transmitted signal data. In someembodiments, network gateway 710 includes a processor to assesslocations of wireless beacons 114 based on the received signals in 928and the assessed location is then provided to the server in 922.

In certain embodiments, RSSI values of the sub-gigahertz radio (oranother longer-range radio band) signals received in network gateway 710are used to assess the locations of wireless beacons 114 in 928. Forexample, the RSSI values may be used to assess the locations of wirelessbeacons 114 within (or inside) the retail location associated withnetwork gateway 710. In some embodiments, a distance of wireless beacon114 from network gateway 710 is assessed using the RSSI value. Thesub-gigahertz radio (or another longer-range radio band) signalsreceived in network gateway 710 are not frequency hopping signals likeBluetooth LE signals. Thus, using RSSI values of the sub-gigahertz radio(or another longer-range radio band) signals received in network gateway710 may provide more accurate RSSI values for wireless beacons 114 thanusing Bluetooth LE. The more accurate RSSI values may provide moreaccurate assessment of the locations of wireless beacons 114 usingevaluation or triangulation of the RSSI values. Providing a moreaccurate location of wireless beacon 114 within the retail location mayallow a processor (e.g., a processor on network gateway 710 or on server126) to more accurately determine a specific location of the wirelessbeacon inside the retail location.

In some embodiments, assessing a specific location of wireless beacon114 and POP display 102 within the retail location in 928 isaccomplished using multiple wireless network gateways and/or wirelessdata collection devices. In some embodiments, two or more networkgateways (or data collection devices) may be used to providetriangulation of the specific location of wireless beacon 114 and itsassociated POP display 102 within the retail location in 928. FIG. 9depicts a block diagram representation of an embodiment of aninteraction between customer device 118, wireless beacons 114, andmultiple network gateways 710 at retail location 200. In certainembodiments, multiple network gateways 710A, 710B, 710C may bedistributed throughout retail location 200. The locations of networkgateways 710A, 710B, 710C may be known (e.g., known by a remote serveror known by the network gateways). In some embodiments, network gateways710A, 710B, 710C may be distributed in a certain section of retaillocation 200. For example, network gateways 710A, 710B, 710C may bedistributed in a back area of retail location 200, a storage area, orother non-customer area of the retail location where POP displays 102are placed when not being used to interact with customers.

In certain embodiments, triangulation of the location of wireless beacon114B includes assessing signal strengths of two or more data broadcasts712A, 712B, 712C between the wireless beacon and network gateways 710A,710B, 710C. Data broadcasts 712A, 712B, 712C may include, for example,Bluetooth radio data broadcasts and/or sub-gigahertz radio databroadcasts. In some embodiments, the assessed signal strengths areprovided to server 126 (e.g., the remote server) along with the uniqueidentifier for wireless beacon 114B by network gateways 710A, 710B,710C. Server 126 may use the assessed signal strengths to triangulate aposition of wireless beacon 114B relative to the network gateways. Insome embodiments, the assessed signal strengths are provided orcollected by one of the network gateways (e.g., network gateway 710A)and the network gateway uses the assessed signal strengths totriangulate a position of wireless beacon 114B. The triangulationinformation may be used to assess the specific location (or an estimateof the specific location) of wireless beacon 114B within retail location200.

In embodiments with network gateways 710A, 710B, 710C located in theback area of retail location 200, the spacing between the networkgateways and wireless beacon 114B may be smaller as storage areas tendto be smaller areas than customer areas of retail locations (e.g.,shopping areas in retail stores). The smaller spacing may provide a moreaccurate assessment of the location of wireless beacon 114B relative tonetwork gateways 710A, 710B, 710C. For example, triangulation withtypical Bluetooth radios may be difficult at distances over about 30feet. Thus, having both network gateways 710A, 710B, 710C and wirelessbeacon 114B in the same area may provide more accurate assessment of thelocation of the wireless beacon when the wireless beacon is in the backarea of retail location 200. Additionally, in some embodiments, networkgateways 710A, 710B, 710C may be placed in a specific pattern thatprovides more accurate assessment of the location of wireless beacons inthe area of the network gateways (e.g., a small or tight pattern for thenetwork gateways). In some embodiments, using network gateways 710A,710B, 710C in the back area of retail location 20 to assess the locationof wireless beacon 114B may be used to deduce that if the wirelessbeacon is detected by the network gateways as not being in the back areaof the retail location but in the retail location, the wireless beaconis in the customer area (e.g., front) of the retail location. In someembodiments, sensors (e.g., sensors 116) on POP displays 102 and/ornetwork gateways 710A, 710B, 710C may be used to increase the accuracyof assessing the specific location of wireless beacon 114 within retaillocation 200. For example, light and/or motion sensors may be used oneither POP displays 102 and/or network gateways 710A, 710B, 710C toincrease the accuracy of location assessment.

In certain embodiments, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, network gateway 710and/or data collection device 711 includes sensor 713. In certainembodiments, sensor 713 is an accelerometer. Network gateway 710 and/ordata collection device 711 may be powered either by battery power or ACpower (e.g., plugged into a wall outlet). The accelerometer may be usedto assess or detect movement of network gateway 710 and/or datacollection device 711. Network gateway 710 and/or data collection device711may be moved, for example, to provide a better location for receivingsignals from wireless beacons 114 and/or during store reorganization.Moving network gateway 710 and/or data collection device 711may changetheir position relative to the remote server, wireless beacons 114,other network gateways (or data collection devices), and/or a networkaccess point.

In certain embodiments, network gateway 710 and/or data collectiondevice 711 are retrained or reprogrammed based on its new absoluteposition and/or the changes in its relative positions. Network gateway710 and/or data collection device 711 may provide a transmission (e.g.,a signal) to the remote server (e.g., server 126) that the networkgateway and/or the data collection device has been moved. For example,network gateway 710 may add a data packet to its transmission to theremote server indicating movement of the network gateway. In response toreceiving the transmission that network gateway 710 and/or datacollection device 711 have been moved, the remote server may sendinformation to the network gateway and/or the data collection device toretrain or reprogram the device based on its new position. For example,the remote server may modify one or more operating parameters of networkgateway 710 and/or data collection device 711 based on the receivedmovement data. Retraining or reprogramming of network gateway 710 and/ordata collection device 711 may include updating or reconfiguring signaldata for the network gateway and/or the data collection device. In someembodiments, the remote server may send retraining or reprogramminginformation to additional network gateways or additional data collectiondevices based on the movement of network gateway 710 and/or datacollection device 711 as such movement may affect the entire LAN ofnetwork gateways and data collection devices.

FIG. 10 depicts a flowchart of an embodiment of method 806D used toassess a location of a POP display. Method 806D may be used to assessthe retail location of the POP display using interaction with customerdevice 118 and SDK 125 on the customer device. In 930, customer device118 may receive a packet (e.g., a data packet such as packet 700, shownin FIG. 3) from wireless beacon 114. The packet may include the uniqueidentifier for wireless beacon 114. In some embodiments, customer device118 may receive multiple packets from multiple wireless beacons, eachpacket having the unique identifier for the originating wireless beacon.

In 932, SDK 125 may combine the received unique identifier along withinformation about the retail location of customer device 118 from 933.In certain embodiments, the retail location of customer device 118 in933 is provided by another application (or entity) located on thecustomer device. For example, mobile application 127 (located insoftware package 122 on customer device 118, as shown in FIG. 1) mayprovide the retail location of the customer device. The manner in whichmobile application 127 determines the retail location of customer device118 may be unknown to SDK 125. For example, mobile application 127 maybe a retailer “app” that determines the retail location (e.g., storenumber) of customer device 118 through an unknown or proprietaryalgorithm. Regardless of the manner in which mobile application 127determines the retail location of customer device 118, SDK 125 mayreceive the retail location known by the mobile application in 933 andcombine this information with the unique identifiers for the wirelessbeacons.

In 934, SDK 125 may then provide the retail location of customer device118 along with the unique identifier to the remote server. In someembodiments, a time stamp from customer device 118 is also provided tothe remote server. In certain embodiments, SDK 125 provides uniqueidentifiers for a plurality of wireless beacons along with the retaillocation of customer device 118.

In 936, the remote server may assess or determine the (selected) retaillocation of wireless beacon 114 with the unique identifier byassociating the wireless beacon with the provided retail location ofcustomer device 118. If multiple unique identifiers are sent to theremote server, the remote server may determine the retail location ofeach of the wireless beacons with the unique identifiers by associatingthe retail location of customer device 118 with each wireless beacon.The retail location of the POP display determined in 936 (the POPdisplay having the wireless beacon with the unique identifier) may beprovided to method 800, shown in FIG. 5, to be used as the assessedretail location in 808.

Identification of the retail location of wireless beacon 114 by server126 through the interaction of the wireless beacon with customer device118 allows the wireless beacon's location to be dynamically cataloged bythe server and potentially other portions of the overall system,including the wireless beacon itself. Identification of the retaillocation by server 126 may be advantageous in that it does not requirethat the final destination of wireless beacon 114 and circuit board 104be known at the time of manufacture or distribution since its locationmay be determined without any external intervention after POP display102 containing the circuit board has been set up in its intended finallocation.

The above disclosed embodiments may be utilized to optimize embodimentsof a manufacturing supply chain associated with POP displays 102 andcircuit board 104. As noted above, the location of a given wirelessbeacon and the other wireless beacons that it may connect to need not beknown before the wireless beacon, or circuit board, is installed in itsfinal location. Current commercially available products, however, treatthe installation of wireless beacons as a network infrastructure projectand do not contemplate integrating wireless beacons into other systems(e.g., POP displays). Thus, for a given store, technicians typicallyinstall hard points to supply power and network connectivity for eachwireless beacon, which severely limits a store manager's flexibility inplacing the beacons. Additionally, once a wireless beacon is deployed ina location, moving the wireless beacon may require bringing in atechnician to disconnect and then rewire each wireless beacon in its newlocation. Location changes must also be accompanied by revisions to thedatabase that describes the placement of each wireless beacon. This modeof deployment is fundamentally incompatible with conventional POPdisplays (e.g., non-connected POP displays), which typically can bemoved around at will. If wireless beacons and their attendant power andnetworking requirements are installed in POP displays, then the POPdisplays may become inflexible infrastructure points without a systemthat allows for flexible movement and locating of the POP displays asdescribed herein.

As described herein, the embodiments of POP display system 100 and POPdisplay 102 with wireless beacon 114 may provide increased flexibilityfor the placement and movement of the POP displays because of themodular, ad hoc nature of the disclosed embodiments. POP display system100 may provide a flexible and easy to deploy system that does notrequire specialized technicians and/or expensive wiring. In certainembodiments, a store manager is able to simply assemble POP display 102and place the POP display in the store anywhere desired as if it was aconventional display.

Additionally, the disclosed modular POP display system 100 and methodsassociated with the system simplify the overall supply chain for POPdisplays. Traditionally, POP displays are manufactured in bulk at afactory and then sent to a distribution center where the displays mayremain in storage for months at a time before distribution to a finallocation. When incorporating wireless beacons, this creates a logisticalproblem as one would ideally like to know where a given wireless beaconwill end up (e.g., so the display can be programmed based on the finallocation). Current manufacturing supply chains, however, are notstructured to accommodate that level of granularity. Typically, largepallets of displays are manufactured, stored, and bulk distributed tostores en masse without regard to a specific display's journey. Thismethod is not a problem when a display simply contains a static displayand perhaps a coupon and/or a product holder. For POP displays thatinteract (e.g., dynamically interact), via wireless beacons, with acustomer device so that location, content, and customer specificinformation may be communicated between the customer device and a remoteserver, however, such distribution methods are problematic as theyrequire experienced and expensive technicians to install wireless beaconenabled displays at their known final location. Once installed, a humanmay manually configure each wireless beacon enabled display with itslocation and identification information, as well as record suchinformation for use in a database. The manual installation, however, maybe tedious, time consuming, and difficult to implement on a consistentbasis.

FIG. 11 depicts a flowchart of a manufacturing supply chain associatedwith POP displays 102. Supply chain 300 utilizes embodiments of POPdisplay system 100, POP display 102, and circuit board 104 disclosedherein that via their ad hoc nature, may be flexible and readilycompatible with existing manufacturing practices. In certainembodiments, large quantities of POP displays 102 may end up at a finaldisplay location without advanced planning and interaction between thePOP displays with circuit boards 104, customer devices (e.g., customerdevices 118), and a server (e.g., server 126) may provide aconfiguration to POP system 100 as needed.

In certain embodiments, as shown in FIG. 1, circuit board 104 includesbattery 106. In some embodiments, battery 106 is a non-removable batteryor a permanently affixed battery. Battery 106 being a non-removablebattery may provide power savings in the context of the supply chain300, shown in FIG. 11. Non-removable batteries may be desirable insupply chain 300 because they are cheaper and are more reliable. Forexample, it may be more difficult for a permanently affixed battery tobe jarred out of its connection as compared to a normal (removable)battery mounted in a typical holder. Additionally, another downside toremovable batteries is that they may have to be installed on site by thepersonnel who set up POP display 102 with circuit board 104 in its finallocation. Such personnel may fail to install the batteries correctly oreven install the batteries at all, rendering POP display 102 useless forits intended purpose.

A consideration in using a non-removable (e.g., permanent) battery asbattery 106, as shown in FIG. 1, is that, due to the fact that thebattery cannot be replaced, it is important to preserve battery life tomaximize the service life of circuit board 104. To increase batterylife, in certain embodiments, as shown in FIG. 1, circuit board 104includes switch 108. Switch 108 may be a switch such as a power jumperor functional equivalent (e.g., a dip switch). Switch 108 may provide aremovable connection between battery 106 and the rest of the circuitryin circuit board 104 (e.g., wireless beacon 114). Thus, no power isdrained from battery 106 when switch 108 is not installed or turned on.Not installing switch 108 allows circuit board 104 to be stored forextended lengths of time (e.g., approximately one year or greater)without reducing any useable power storage in battery 106.

As shown in FIG. 11, POP display 102 (shown in FIG. 1) is manufacturedin factory 302. After manufacture in factory 302, POP display 102 may bemoved from the factory to distribution center 304. In certainembodiments, POP display 102 moves from factory 302 to distributioncenter 304 along with circuit board 104. Circuit board 104 may havebattery 106 disconnected from any power draining circuitry (e.g.,controller 112 and/or wireless beacon 114). For example, switch 108 maydisconnect power to power draining circuitry. At distribution center304, circuit board 104 (with deactivated circuitry) and POP display 102are received in 306. At 308, switch 108 is installed or turned on toprovide power from battery 106 to the rest of the circuitry in circuitboard 104 and wireless beacon 114 is activated. In certain embodiments,wireless beacon 114 is configured such that, upon its first activation,the wireless beacon scans for specific connections that are associatedwith its configuration mode.

The use of a power switch (e.g., switch 108) in circuit board 104 andsupply chain 300 provides several advantages. One advantage is thatswitch 108 ensures that battery 106 is disconnected at the time ofmanufacture of POP display 102 to extend the life of the battery.Another advantage is that the wireless beacon 114 is deactivated untilswitch 108 is connected. Deactivating wireless beacon 114 allowsdistribution center 304 to activate a small number of POP displays at atime in a configuration procedure discussed below. If, for example, thethousands, or even hundreds of thousands, of POP displays in a warehouse(e.g., distribution center 304) were active at the same time and theirwireless beacons were actively broadcasting and/or scanning, theresulting electronic cacophony could render all communication andconfiguration difficult or even impossible. Empirical testing has shownthat having more than 50 active beacons in close proximity may causesevere wireless interference problems. Thus, a distribution center fullof active beacons could be rendered completely useless. Furthermore,transportation rules and requirements often restrict the transmission ofelectromagnetic signals by shipped items. Thus, the ability to disablewireless broadcasts by the included beacons both after initialmanufacture and during distribution has the additional benefit offacilitating the transport of embodiments of POP displays 102 withwireless beacons 114.

In some embodiments, it may be desirable to physically activate abattery at the time a circuit board is removed from its shippingcontainer. In such embodiments, an insulator may be placed betweenbattery terminals to turn the controller off. Such an insulator may betethered to the external shipping enclosure in such a way that thebattery insulator is pulled from between the terminals as the circuitboard is removed from the shipping enclosure. Removing the batteryinsulator may then activate the controller and the wireless beacon.

In certain embodiments, after wireless beacon 114 establishes aconnection in 308, variations of the wireless beacon's parameters areconfigured in controller 112 via software in 310. Controller 112 may beconfigured, for example, via the BLE connection made between wirelessbeacon 114 and a programmer device (e.g., a wireless programmingdevice). In certain embodiments, wireless beacons 114 are associatedwith a selected campaign in 310 (e.g., as part of step 802, shown inFIG. 5). During configuration in 310, time parameters may be set incontroller 112 such that wireless beacon 114 is able to determine andact upon a target start date of a (selected) campaign. For example,controller 112 and clock 113 may be configured with the current date andtime as well as the target date and time for the selected campaign tobegin. In certain embodiments, this process is simplified to absoluteamount of time between the time of configuration and the beginning ofthe selected campaign. Various other parameters may be set during theconfiguration in 310 as well.

In certain embodiments, during configuration 310, unique label 117,shown in FIG. 1, is scanned or otherwise identified. In someembodiments, unique label 117 is added to circuit board 104 beforearriving at distribution center 304. In some embodiments, unique label117 is added at distribution center 304. Scanning unique label 117 mayallow the unique label to be associated with wireless beacon 114 and itsunique identifier. For example, unique label 117 may be scanned and theunique label may be programmed (via the BLE connection) to be associatedwith the unique identifier for wireless beacon 114 and/or otherassociated data such as, but not limited to, an activation date orcampaign associated with circuit board 104 and the wireless beacon.Associating unique label 117 with wireless beacon 114 (and itsassociated data) allows information about the wireless beacon to beaccessed while the wireless beacon is asleep by scanning the uniquelabel. Unique label 117 may be scanned while wireless beacon 114 isasleep to obtain programmed information (e.g., campaign information oractivation time) and place circuit board 104 into a proper POP display(as described below) before the POP display is shipped to a finaldisplay location.

After configuration is complete in 310, the configuration applicationdisconnects from controller 112 and wireless beacon 114 (and circuitboard 104) may enter sleep mode 312. In sleep mode 312, wireless beacon114 may shut down its Bluetooth radio, and the circuitry in circuitboard 104 may enter a low power mode to conserve the batteries beforethe circuit board is installed onto POP display 102 and also while thePOP display is stored in advance of being shipped to a final location(e.g., a retail location). Thus, even though switch 108 has beenactivated in distribution center 304, the problem of having too manyactive Bluetooth radios (e.g., wireless beacons) in close proximity inthe distribution center is inhibited as each activated radio onlyremains active for a short period of time as configuration of thewireless beacon is conducted. Also, it is worth noting that the lowpower mode referred to above includes any control circuitry, such as amicrocontroller, not just the Bluetooth beacon itself. It will also beapparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that such circuitry may beimplemented in various layouts, such as in several discrete chips or oneintegrated chip.

While circuit board 104 and wireless beacon 114 are in sleep mode 312 ora low power mode, the circuit board may be installed in POP display 102in 313. After circuit board 104 is installed, POP display 102 may bemoved (e.g., shipped or transported) in 314. POP display 102 may bemoved to final display location 316, as shown in FIG. 11. Final displaylocation 316 may be, for example, a retail or shopping location for POPdisplay 102 to be located in front of customers to provide aninteractive customer experience. At final display location 316, POPdisplay 102 may be assembled in 318 and placed in an operating locationin 320. After being placed at the operating location in 320, when theconfiguration circuitry (programmed in 310) determines that the targetdate and time for the campaign has been reached, the circuitry awakensfrom its sleep state at the configured time in 322. In 322, wirelessbeacon 114 activates its wireless (e.g., Bluetooth) radio and campaignrelated operations begin in 324.

In some embodiments, when POP display 102 is located at distributioncenter 304 (or another storage warehouse before the POP display is sentto the retail location), wireless beacons 114 may be programmed tobroadcast their signals (turn on their Bluetooth radios) for at leastsome time (e.g., while the wireless beacons are in low power mode and/orin sleep mode 312). At distribution center 304, the exact location ofwireless beacons 114 and POP displays 102 is not necessary to be knownbut it is useful to have a knowledge whether the wireless beacons andthe POP displays are, or are not, at the distribution center. In suchembodiments, wireless beacons 114 may broadcast their signals for atleast some time so that the signals can be received to determine if thewireless beacons (and their associated POP displays 102) are indistribution center 304. The signals may be received, for example, by awireless network gateway or other data collection device located atdistribution center 304.

As described above, however, if every wireless beacon 114 atdistribution center 304 broadcasts at the same time, it can createvarious problems with receiving the signals and/or other electronics inthe distribution center. As described herein, wireless beacon 114 may beprogrammed with information about the target date and/or time for acampaign associated with the wireless beacon and its associated POPdisplay 102. In certain embodiments, wireless beacon 114 intermittentlybroadcasts its wireless signal with the target date and/or time for thecampaign while in its low power mode. With multiple (e.g., hundreds orthousands) of wireless beacons 114 at distribution center 304 associatedwith the same campaign, each wireless beacon (or a small group ofwireless beacons) may be programmed to broadcast its wireless signalduring a different time period. For example, each wireless beacon 114(or a small group of wireless beacons) may broadcast its wireless signalonce a day during a selected time slot during the day. The selected timeslot may have a predetermined broadcast duration (e.g., the duration ofthe broadcast is predetermined) of at most about 10 minutes, at mostabout 15 minutes, or at most about 20 minutes. In some embodiments,beacons may be assigned to specific frequencies to further reduce thechance of collisions or airway saturation (e.g., two or more beacons maybe assigned different frequencies for broadcasting their wirelesssignals).

In certain embodiments, each wireless beacon 114 is assigned a time slotfor broadcasting based on its unique identifier. As the uniqueidentifier is typically randomly assigned, assigning each wirelessbeacon 114 a time slot based on the unique identifier for the wirelessbeacon may distribute wireless beacon broadcasts throughout the day.Distributing wireless beacon 114 broadcasts throughout the day atdistribution center 304 may reduce the probability of signal collisionsin the distribution center as the number of wireless beaconsbroadcasting at any given time is reduced. In certain embodiments, afterthe target date and/or time of the campaign is reached, wireless beacons114 begin broadcasting more frequently (e.g., every hour or so) as POPdisplays are expected to be active and at the retail location by thetarget date and/or time.

As described above, the embodiment of supply chain 300 may provide asolution to the problem of how to build POP displays with wirelessbeacons in advance while not running down the batteries while thedisplays are being stored. Using supply chain 300 may also ensure thatthe associated radios are inactive while the POP display is being storedand transported. These aspects may be important when considering theoverall supply chain.

In certain embodiments, wireless network gateways and/or wireless datacollection devices (e.g., network gateway 710 or another data collectiondevice such as data collection device 711) are used at one or morelocations in a supply/distribution chain for POP displays 102 to monitormovement of the POP displays through the supply/distribution chain. FIG.12 depicts an embodiment of supply/distribution chain 720 for POPdisplays 102. In certain embodiments, supply/distribution chain 720includes factory 722. Factory 722 may be, for example, a factory formanufacturing and/or assembly of POP displays 102. In some embodiments,circuit board 104 with wireless beacon 114 is installed on POP displays102 at factory 722.

In some embodiments, POP displays 102 are moved to pack-out 724. Atpack-out 724, products, product information, and/or other productmaterials may be added to POP displays 102. After the pack-out of POPdisplays 102, the POP displays may be moved to distribution center 726.Distribution center 726 may be, for example, a distribution centerassociated with a specific retailer (e.g., a distribution center for aspecific retail store). At distribution center 726, wireless beacons 114may be programmed to be associated with a selected campaign for thespecific retailer as described herein. For example, the uniqueidentifiers for wireless beacons 114 may be associated with the selectedcampaign.

In certain embodiments, POP displays 102 are moved to retail location728 at a designated time associated with the selected campaign for thespecific retailer. As described herein, the location of a specificretail location 728 for each POP display 102 may not be known and thePOP displays are distributed randomly to several retail locationsassociated with the specific retailer. At retail location 728, POPdisplays 102 may be located in a front or back of the retail location atone or more times during their use. Additionally, methods describedherein may be used to determine if POP displays 102 are located in thefront or back of retail location 728.

POP displays 102 may be moved through supply/distribution chain 720using a variety of shipping/freight transit methods. For example, asshown in FIG. 12, POP displays 102 may be moved throughsupply/distribution chain 720 using trucks 730. Other shipping methodsmay be used including, but not limited to, train, ship (boat), or airtransport.

In certain embodiments, network gateways 710 are located at factory 722,pack-out 724, distribution center 726, and/or retail location 728. Insome embodiments, network gateways 710 are located on trucks 730.Network gateways 710 may be used, as described herein, to receive datapackets from wireless beacons 114 on POP displays 102 and transmit datareceived in the data packets to a remote server (e.g., server 126).Network gateways 710 on trucks 730 may transmit information to a remoteserver over a wireless data network (e.g., a cellular network).

As described above, wireless beacons 114 may not be programmed tobroadcast information for the selected campaign until they are locatedat distribution center 726. Wireless beacons 114 may, however, includeinitial programming that configures the wireless beacons 114 tobroadcast identifying information for the wireless beacons (e.g., theunique identifiers) once the wireless beacons are activated in somemanner Thus, wireless beacons 114 may be activated at factory 722 tobegin broadcast identifying information. The identifying information maybe received by network gateway 710 at factory 722. Server 126 may thenidentify that specific wireless beacons are at factory 722 based on theidentifying information received from network gateway 710 with thelocation of the network gateway being known by the server. Networkgateways 710 with known locations at each of the other locations insupply/distribution chain 720 may be used similarly to identify thelocations (and time at the locations) of wireless beacons 114 (and theirassociated POP displays 102) as the POP displays move through thesupply/distribution chain.

In certain embodiments, wireless beacons 114 intermittently broadcasttheir wireless signals (e.g., data packets with identifying information)while the wireless beacons are in a low power mode. For example, asdescribed above, each wireless beacon 114 may broadcast its wirelesssignal during a different time period (e.g., once a day during aselected time slot during the day). Intermittently broadcasting thewireless signals from wireless beacons 114 may prevent interferencebetween wireless signals and/or overloading network gateways 710 withwireless signals. As described herein, wireless beacons 114 may becomeactive (e.g., broadcast continuously or substantially continuously) whenthe wireless beacons arrive at retail location 728 and/or when thedesignated time for the selected campaign begins.

In certain embodiments, POP displays 102 that move throughsupply/distribution chain 720 include one or more sensors on the display(e.g., sensor 116 as described herein). The sensors may be used to trackone or more properties of POP displays 102 as the POP displays movethrough supply/distribution chain 720. Data from the sensors may bestored in memory on POP displays 102 (e.g., memory 110). In someembodiments, the data from the sensors is stored and then sent to server126 after POP displays 102 reach their final location (e.g., retaillocation 728). In some embodiments, the sensor data is sent to server126 as POP displays 102 move through supply/distribution chain 720. Forexample, the sensor data may be provided in data packets broadcast bywireless beacons 114 and received by network gateways 710. Networkgateways 710 may then provide the sensor data to server 126.

Examples of properties of POP displays 102 that may be tracked by thesensors include, but are not limited to, temperature and motion of thePOP displays. Tracking temperature of POP displays 102 may be useful forperishable products that are temperature sensitive. For example, if thetemperature of POP displays 102 exceeds minimum and/or maximumtemperatures allowable for a selected product, an alert may be sent thatthe product may be spoiled or unsafe for consumer use. Tracking motionof POP displays 102 may be useful for determining how the POP displaysare handled through supply/distribution chain 720.

In some embodiments, POP display 102 includes a light sensor (e.g., oneof sensors 116, shown in FIG. 1, is a light sensor). In suchembodiments, the light sensor may be used to trigger activation of theradio only after the light sensor detects visible light level above athreshold and the campaign date has started. Using the light sensor totrigger activation may further conserve power by not turning the radioon if POP display 102 has not been unpacked or the store is closed andthe lights are off. The radio and some sensors, however, may not need tooperate under the same schedule or conditions. For example, certainsensors may be active even when POP display 102 is in low power mode.These sensors may be used to allow POP display 102 to determine whetherthe display is being transported or being set up at a final location.One skilled in the art will recognize that this permits one to selectwhat a skilled artisan deems to be the optimal tradeoff between batteryconsumption and situational awareness. Some embodiments may utilizeother sensors to determine whether the store is open or whetherpotential customers are nearby (e.g., proximity sensors may be used todetermine if customers are nearby). Information from these sensors mayalso be combined with the campaign start date to determine whether theradio should be activated. In some embodiments, one of sensors 116 is anaccelerometer. The accelerometer may be active when POP display 102 isin low power mode and may trigger activation of the radio when anymovement is registered by the accelerometer. If, however, a light sensordoes not detect a visible light level above the threshold and/or thecampaign date has not started, the activation of the radio may betemporary (e.g., only for a short, selected amount of time).

In some embodiments, POP display 102 (and POP display system 100) allowsfor the tracking of the deployment rate of POP displays at a retaillocation. FIG. 13 depicts a block diagram of an embodiment of aplurality of POP displays 102 at retail location 200. POP displays 102at retail location 200 are capable of communicating with each otherand/or with server 126. In certain embodiments, POP displays 102communicate with each other and provide information to a single POPdisplay (e.g., POP display 102′). POP display 102′ may then communicatewith server 126 to provide the information to the server, as shown inFIG. 13.

In some embodiments, server 126 detects information about the relativelocations of wireless beacons 114. For example, since each wirelessbeacon 114 is equipped with a unique identifier, server 126, upondetecting and determining the identity of one wireless beacon 114 incommunication range with another wireless beacon, may determine that thebeacons are associated with a specific store. In some embodiments,depending on the configured broadcast mode of wireless beacons 114,server 126 may communicate with wireless beacon 114′ to relayinformation to the wireless beacon and other wireless beacons 114 withincommunication range of wireless beacon 114′. In this way, a group ofbeacons may operate as an ad hoc distributed communication network,which is advantageous as this does not require that the network be setup and configured beforehand by a technician.

As shown in FIG. 3, network gateway 710 may be located at retaillocation 200. Network gateway 710 may be capable of receiving datapackets broadcast from wireless beacons 114 located at retail location200. Wireless beacons 114 may be located on POP displays 102 that areassociated with a selected campaign where the selected campaign is basedon retail location 200. Network gateway 710 may provide information fromthe received data packets to a remote server. The information providedmay include unique identifiers for wireless beacons 114. Based onreceiving the unique identifiers for wireless beacons 114 from networkgateway 710, the remote server may assess that the wireless beacons areassociated with the selected campaign (based on their uniqueidentifiers), the wireless beacons are working, and the wireless beacons(and their associated POP displays 102) are located at retail location200.

In some embodiments, network gateway 710 is capable of receiving datapackets broadcast from additional wireless beacons located at retaillocation 200. These additional wireless beacons may be “rogue” wirelessbeacons that are not associated with the selected campaign for retaillocation 200. These additional wireless beacons may include, but not belimited to, wireless beacons associated with other campaigns and/orwireless beacons used for other functions. Network gateway 710 mayprovide information regarding these additional wireless beacons to theremote server. In some embodiments, the remote server may catalogue orattempt to identify the additional wireless beacons for reportingpurposes. For example, a report may be provided to retail location 200(or an entity associated with the retail location) identifying theadditional wireless beacons at the retail location that are notassociated with the selected campaign.

In some embodiments, the presence of a display may be detected on theselling area of a store (e.g., the customer area or front of the store)and when present, trigger a message to consumers whether they arepresent in the store or not (e.g., does not matter if the consumer isphysically present in the store or not). In such embodiments, detectionof the presence of the display may be used to announce temporary “deals”or other offers that may be an attraction for consumers to make aspecial or unplanned trip to the store.

While marketing materials (such as product displays or POP displays) areintended for use at a retail location (e.g., retail location 200),often, and sometimes in large percentages, these marketing materials arenot put up at all, are put up at the wrong time, or are discardedprematurely. Thus, there is an interest in monitoring retail locationcompliance with marketing (e.g., selected campaign) plans using smallelectronic devices embedded or coupled to the marketing materials. Achallenge presented with the use of electronic devices, however, isdisposal of potentially-hazardous batteries or circuit boards withhazardous materials. Many current options for disposal ofpotentially-hazardous batteries or circuit boards with hazardousmaterials are expensive or not available for many retail locations.

Additionally, disposal standards are evolving at different paces bystate and by country. Consumer product manufacturers and retailers arefacing a combination of regulatory challenges and fear that some aspectof their long-standing disposal programs will be subject to steep finesor closure. Further, in addition to financial penalties, public trustand consumer loyalty, which typically takes years or decades to build,may deteriorate rapidly with public disclosure of disposal infractions.

Wireless beacons 114 and circuit boards 112 on POP displays 102, asdescribed herein, may pose new and different disposal issues. Inparticular, embodiments described herein of wireless beacons 114 and/orcircuit boards 112 include electronics and batteries designed to beembedded in large volumes of cardboard-based disposable displays, signs,and other marketing materials (e.g., POP displays 102). Retailers maynot even be aware of the presence of wireless beacons 114 and/or circuitboards 112 due to their being embedded in POP displays 102. Typically,any items embedded in POP displays 102 are discarded along with thepaper-based materials to which they are attached. Proper disposal ofthese electronic items may, however, be critical as new technologiesand/or future regulations are developed. It may also be desirable toprovide affordable and/or creative solutions for proper disposal ofthese electronic items.

As described herein, wireless beacons 114 (located on circuit boards112) may be manufactured and sent to a factory for assembly of POPdisplay 102 (e.g., factory 722, shown in FIG. 12). Assembly of POPdisplay 102 may include adding marketing materials and/or specialsignage to the POP display in addition to coupling or embedding circuitboards 112 and wireless beacons 114 on the POP display. In certainembodiments, wireless beacon 114 is placed in an enclosure when coupledto POP displays 102. The enclosure may be provided to enable properdisposal and/or recycling of wireless beacon 114.

FIG. 14 depicts a top view representation of an embodiment of wirelessbeacon 114 in enclosure 740 on POP display 102. FIG. 15 depicts a sideview representation of the embodiment depicted in FIG. 14. Enclosure 740may include pliable materials that are durable or sturdy. Enclosure 740may be, for example, a plastic bag with a particular shape. In someembodiments, enclosure 740 is a plastic bag with a rectangular shapesimilar to a mailing envelope.

In certain embodiments, enclosure 740 is coupled to POP display 102using an adhesive material (e.g., an adhesive strip of material), oranother attachment means, that allows a person (e.g., a retaileremployee) to remove the enclosure from the POP display by applying asmall amount of force. In certain embodiments, as shown in FIG. 15,sensor 742 is positioned between enclosure 740 and POP display 202. Insome embodiments, sensor 742 may include, or be part of, the attachmentmeans for attaching enclosure 740 to POP display 202. Sensor 742 may beused to detect when enclosure 740 is attached to POP display 102 and/orwhen the enclosure is removed from the POP display. For example, in someembodiments, sensor 742 may be a light sensor or a magnetic sensor usedto assess a condition of the attachment between enclosure 740 and POPdisplay 102 (e.g., assess whether or not the enclosure is attached tothe POP display). When sensor 742 detects that enclosure 740 and POPdisplay 102 are attached, wireless beacon 114 may be allowed to activelyoperate as described herein (e.g., broadcast its wireless signal).

When sensor 742 detects that enclosure 740 and POP display 102 are notattached, an operating state of wireless beacon 114 may be changed. Thechange in operating state may be executed by a program on wirelessbeacon 114. In certain embodiments, wireless beacon 114 may change to anoperating state where the wireless beacon is placed in an “alert” state.In the alert state, wireless beacon 114 may broadcast a wireless signalwith one or more data packets that indicate a “removal” status of thewireless beacon (e.g., indicate that the wireless beacon has beenremoved from POP display 102). The wireless signal may be received bycustomer devices 118, network gateway 710, and/or data collection device711 and transmitted to server 126, as described herein. After a suitableperiod for broadcasting its “removal” status, wireless beacon 114 mayexecute a shutdown program to turn the wireless beacon off substantiallypermanently.

In some embodiments, sensor 742 includes, or is, a piece of conductivetape. The conductive tape may be used to attach (couple) enclosure 740to POP display 102. Enclosure 740 may include a small hole that allowsthe conductive tape to couple wireless beacon 114 to POP display 102. Insome embodiments, the conductive tape is used in addition to theadhesive material coupling enclosure 740 to POP display 102. Theconductive tape may form an electrical connection to electronics inwireless beacon 114 that is detected by circuitry in the wirelessbeacon. With the electrical connection detected, wireless beacon 114 isallowed to actively operate as described herein (e.g., broadcast itswireless signal).

In certain embodiments, when enclosure 740 is removed from POP display102 (e.g., at the end of its use or for any other reason), theconductive tape remains attached to POP display 102 and the conductivetape disconnects from electronics in wireless beacon 114. When theconductive tape disconnects from the electronics in wireless beacon 114,the circuitry in the wireless beacon 114 may detect the change inphysical state of the wireless beacon and change an operating state ofthe wireless beacon. For example, the operating state may be change toan operating state with enclosure 740 not attached to POP display 102 asdescribed herein.

In certain embodiments, enclosure 740 includes instructions forreturning wireless beacon 114 to a proper disposal location (e.g., themanufacturer or programmer of the wireless beacon responsible fordisposal or recycling of the electronics in the wireless beacon). Theinstructions may include a shipping address and prepayment informationfor shipping enclosure 740 and wireless beacon 114. For example,enclosure 740 may be a prepaid shipping enclosure with a preprintedaddress and postage paid information for scanning by a shipping company.

Enclosure 740 may include a barcode label or QR label (e.g., uniquelabel 117) that is scannable to indicate the unique identifier forwireless beacon 114. When enclosure 740 is received at the shippingdestination (e.g., the shipping address on the enclosure), the barcodelabel may be scanned to enter the unique identifier into a databaseindicating wireless beacon 114 has been returned. The database mayassociate the unique identifier with the retail location (e.g., store)that returned wireless beacon 114 based on location informationdetermined for the wireless beacon. The database may also include theselected campaign associated with the returned wireless beacon 114.

Information regarding the return of multiple wireless beacons in thedatabase may be used to assess one or more characteristics of adisposal/recycling program associated with the wireless beacons. Forexample, statistics such as, but not limited to, which stores are mostproactively returning (e.g., recycling) the wireless beacons for aselected campaign, which stores are removing and discarding the wirelessbeacons (shown by indicate of the wireless beacon turning off but notbeing returned), the number of beacons being redeployed (e.g., returnedand then sent back into service), and which beacon placement practicesare suitable for better recycling. These statistics may be used toassess ratings for manufacturers, retailers, and/or display providers.

The disposal/recycle program using enclosure 740 described above mayprovide a simple, low effort and inexpensive program for recyclingand/or reusing wireless beacons 114. In addition, enclosure 740 andsensor 742 in combination with circuitry on wireless beacon 114 may beused to provide automatic indication of removal of the wireless beaconfrom POP display 102, provide automatic shutdown of broadcasting for thewireless beacon as well as other electronic functions, and provide asimple return method for a retailer. Returning wireless beacons 114 tothe shipping destination (e.g., a proper disposal/recycling site) mayallow the wireless beacons to be refurbished, reused, or disposed ofproperly rather than simply being thrown in landfills or other locationsnot suitable for electronic disposal.

It is known in the industry that, on average, only a fraction of POPdisplays delivered to a store are actually deployed. In certainembodiments, however, wireless beacon 114 is capable of communicating,whether directly or indirectly, with server 126, as shown in FIGS. 1 and13. Thus, wireless beacon 114 may relay information gathered by sensors116 indicating that its POP display has been deployed. For example, ifPOP display 102 reaches its campaign start time but its light sensorindicates darkness for a prolonged period of time, it may be inferredthat the POP display was not deployed on a timely basis.

In some embodiments, data collected from sensors 116 and/or customerdevice 118 (and/or other sources) that is stored in information 130 onserver 126, shown in FIG. 1, may be used for historical analysis of theperformance of POP display 102. In some embodiments, the historicalanalysis data is correlated with saved data from wireless beacon 114 tofurther gauge customer engagement. For example, combining informationabout dwell time with the fact of whether the potential customer made apull request may be used to gauge customer engagement. In someembodiments, the historical data is correlated with third party data(e.g., retailer data such as purchase history, etc.). Correlating thehistorical data with third party data may provide further informationuseful to the retailer to enhance a customer's experience.

In some embodiments, various statistical analyses are utilized onhistorical data collected from POP display 102. Statistical analysesthat may be used include, but are not limited to, machine learning anddata mining techniques, set theory, multivariate statistics, and timeseries analyses. Examples of machine learning include deep learning,neural networks, support vector machines, random forests, decision treelearning, association rule learning, inductive logic, clustering,Bayesian networks, reinforcement learning, representation learning,similarity and metric learning, sparse dictionary learning, and geneticalgorithms. Examples of data mining, which is often coextensive withmachine learning, include spatial data mining, temporal data mining,senor data mining, pattern mining, and subject-based data mining. Insome embodiments, these techniques are used for aspects besideshistorical analysis. For example, smoothing techniques associated withsome types of temporal data mining may be used to filter a series ofRSSI signal strength values used in bump detection disclosed herein.

Examples of different types of data that may be collected and analyzedfor POP displays 102 are illustrated in FIGS. 16A-16G. FIG. 11Aillustrates an example of a campaign calendar. FIG. 16B illustrates anexample of an interface displaying various statistics related to POPdisplay deployment and sales. FIG. 16C illustrates an information screenrelated to the product associated with the POP display. FIG. 16Dillustrates an interface displaying national deployment information forPOP displays. FIG. 16E illustrates an interface displaying statedeployment information for POP displays. FIG. 16F illustrates aninterface displaying supply chain information. FIG. 16G illustrates aninterface displaying a sales analysis associated with the POP display.

In some embodiments, POP display 102 includes components or devices thatreduce the surrounding infrastructure requirements for supporting thePOP display. Specifically, POP display 102 may be equipped with wirelesstransmission functionality to transmit any recorded measurements orinformation derived therein as described above. This information may betransmitted to a network gateway and/or a data collection device (e.g.,network gateway 710 and/or data collection device 711, shown in FIG. 3)located within or near the store (e.g., retail location 200, shown inFIG. 3). In certain embodiments, instead of a network gateway, anemployee of the retailer or a POP display service provider may beequipped with a mobile device that contains an application adapted toconnect to POP display 102 and retrieve data from the point of purchasedisplay to be relayed to a server. This connection may be accomplishedutilizing the same wireless connection that is used for beaconfunctionality, or may be conducted by other standard wirelesstransmission protocols as described herein, e.g., IEEE 802.11. Thisminimizes the need for wireless transmission infrastructure to supportthe retrieval of information collected by the point of purchasedisplays.

In some embodiments, POP display system 100 utilizes the applicationalready installed on a potential customer's mobile device (e.g.,software package 122 on customer device 118) to relay the collectedinformation to a server (e.g., server 126). As shown in FIG. 1, POPdisplay 102 may connect with customer device 118 via the same wirelessconnection that enables beacon functionality (e.g., Bluetooth connectionbetween wireless beacon 114 and wireless transceiver 120A) and deliverthe data to the customer device. Customer device 118 may then transmitthe data to server 126 via wireless transceiver 120B or another wirelesstransceiver. Since transmission through customer device 118 may incur adata charge on the customer, the application may be configured to promptthe user for permission to do so. In some embodiments, the applicationmay offer the user some form of compensation for the use of their dataconnection. For example, a discount on some good or service in thestore. In this way, data can be moved to server 126 by users who arenormally just walking around the store and requires no specialinfrastructure. Additionally, the data to be transmitted may becompressed using standard techniques to minimize the amount of bandwidthconsumed, and the application (e.g., the SDK) may be configured to,under certain cases, delay the transfer of data over the mobile device'swireless network connection to the server if the network connection isnot over WiFi and/or the mobile device is not connected to an externalpower source. In other words, the mobile device may be directed to savethe data and wait until the customer is connected to a wireless networkwhere transmission of the data will not adversely impact the customer'swireless data plan or the mobile device's battery life.

In some embodiments, wireless beacon 114 may be attached to a high-valueor high-interest product. In such cases, wireless beacon 114 may be usedto know/track when the product has been moved or removed within orbeyond the store. Tracking movement of the product may be useful forinventory control or theft monitoring. For example, if movement isdetected, the server could note the date and time of movement in orderto review security camera video of the event.

In certain embodiments, POP display system 100, shown in FIG. 1,includes one or more security protocols. The security protocols may beused to provide secure customer interaction and/or customer engagementwith POP display system 100, and/or to control access to customerinteractions and/or customer engagement with the POP display system. Thesecurity protocols may be used to provide security for a retailerassociated with POP display system 100.

In certain embodiments, the security protocols are included in SDK 125located in software package 122 on customer device 118, as shown inFIG. 1. In some embodiments, the security protocols are included insoftware or hardware on network gateway 710. The security protocols mayinclude protocols for providing a geofence around one or more retaillocations. For example, a list of acceptable locations for interactionbetween customer device 118 and POP display system 100 may be stored inmemory cache 124 on the customer device. In some embodiments, SDK 125provides the list of acceptable locations into memory cache 124.Acceptable locations may include, but not be limited to, geographiczones around retail locations associated with a selected campaign for aselected retailer (e.g., a perimeter around a retail location).

FIG. 17 depicts a flowchart of an embodiment of a geofence protocolprocess. In certain embodiments, geofence protocol process 750 beginswhen customer device 118 receives packet 700 from POP display 102 in752. In 754, SDK 125 may assess a geographic location of the customerdevice (e.g., a GPS location of the customer device) and/or locationinformation about the customer device. In 756, SDK 125 may determine ifthe geographic location (or a location determined from the locationinformation) of customer device 118 is in the list of acceptablelocations. SDK 125 may access the list of acceptable locations frommemory cache 124 in order to determine if the geographic location of thecustomer device is in the list of acceptable locations. If SDK 125determines that customer device 118 is at a geographic location in thelist of acceptable locations (“Y”), then interaction between thecustomer device and POP display system 100 may be allowed in 758 (e.g.,customer interaction and/or customer engagement with the POP displaysystem is allowed). If SDK 125 determines that customer device 118 is ata geographic location that is not in the list of acceptable locations(“N”), then interaction between the customer device and POP displaysystem 100 would be prevented in 760. In some embodiments, interactionbetween customer device 118 and POP display system 100 may be throttledor limited (e.g., only limited interaction for selected content isallowed) in 760.

In some embodiments, a list of locations where interaction betweencustomer device 118 and POP display system 100 is not acceptable may bestored in memory cache 124 on the customer device. For example, a listof countries that are not acceptable for customer interaction and/orcustomer engagement may be stored in memory cache 124. Such countriesmay include, for example, countries where a retailer associated with POPdisplay system 100 does not do business.

Mobile application 127, as described herein, may be located in softwarepackage 122 on customer device 118, as shown in FIG. 1. Mobileapplication 127 may be, for example, a retailer “app” such as a customerloyalty app specific for a selected retailer. In certain embodiments,mobile application 127 includes security protocols for customerinteraction and/or customer engagement with POP display system 100.

Mobile application 127 may include one or more protocols for signing(logging) in a user of the mobile application (e.g., for signing in thecustomer to the mobile application). In certain embodiments, whencustomer device 118 receives packet 700 from POP display 102, SDK 125directs mobile application 127 to request a digitally signed payloadfrom the retail server (e.g., the remote server for the mobileapplication or loyalty app) that is logged into the mobile application.The signed payload may be based on the user that is logged into mobileapplication 127. If the user is logged into mobile application 127, thesigned payload may be received by customer device 118 and utilized bySDK 125.

In certain embodiments, SDK 125 sends the signed payload along with arequest for up-to-date data (e.g., content) from server 126. The signedpayload may be used by server 126 to authenticate and/or validate therequest for the up-to-date data. Using the signed payload toauthenticate and/or validate the request may provide security forinteractions between customer device 118 and POP display system 100involving mobile application 127. Additionally, the retail server mayassess the number of requests being made for a selected signed payload(e.g., requests are being made by a user with the selected signedpayload). The retail server may direct server 126 to throttle or limitcontent requests for the user with the selected signed payload if it isdetermined that the user is abusing or overusing POP display system 100for a specific retailer.

Merchandise displays (e.g., POP displays) and/or other productmerchandising materials may often be designed and/or created to beassembled and placed in a consolidated space in a retail location. Anexample of displays and products in the consolidated space may be a boxcontaining a number of beauty products designed to sit on a retailer'send cap. A header card may be used to highlight that the productrepresents the latest seasonal shade of colors. A separate side panelmay highlight a mix of products available for each shade. Anotherseparate adjoining panel may highlight that a coupon is available foritems contained on the display. Retailers may, however, often omit oneor more of these elements (e.g., panels) due to the lack of space, lackof time, or lack of awareness of their criticality to sales of theproduct. Thus, it may be useful to assess the proximal presence of oneor more of the elements used for promotion associated with a selectedcampaign, where the selected campaign includes two or more elements asdescribed above.

As described herein, wireless beacons 114 may be used in POP displays102 to interact with customers and provide content to the customers oncustomer devices 118. The content provided may be particular to theselected campaign as determined by the product manufacturer and/or theretailer. Additionally, wireless beacons 114 in POP displays 102, alongwith other components associated with the wireless beacons on the POPdisplays, provides data collection, activity and/or environmentassessment using sensors, simplified portable battery supply, andintermittent broadcasting to extend battery life.

In certain embodiments, product merchandising materials associated withPOP display 102 (e.g., the elements used for promotion described above)include additional identification tags. For example, the productmerchandising materials may include passive EPC (Electronic ProductCode) tags. POP display 102 may include an EPC radio capable ofassessing the EPC tags in proximity to POP display 102. The EPC radiomay, for example, broadcast a wireless signal that reflects from thetags and is received by the radio, indicating the presence of the tags(and product merchandising materials) near the radio. In someembodiments, the EPC radio is intermittently used to assess the EPC tagsin proximity to POP display 102. Intermittent use of the EPC radio mayreduce battery usage with the EPC radio and thus, increase efficiency inusing the EPC radio. Additionally, the product merchandising materialsare likely to not move frequently relative to POP display 102, sointermittent assessment (e.g., 1-3 times per day) of the EPC tags may besuitable for certain embodiments.

In some locations, it may be possible for EPC tags not associated withPOP display 102 to be within a range of the EPC radio (a typical rangebeing about 25 feet). Thus, in some embodiments, power for the EPC radiomay be throttled from high to medium to low to further assess which EPCtags are proximal or on POP display 102 compared to other EPC tags thatare randomly in the vicinity of the POP display. In some embodiments,additional EPC tags may be placed on products that are placed on POPdisplay 102. EPC tags on the products may be used, for example, toassess inventory of products on POP display 102.

In certain embodiments, the EPC radio broadcasts a signal in a range of902 MHz to 928 MHz. In some embodiments, the EPC radio is included in asingle chip or a chip set associated with wireless beacon 114. Forexample, the EPC radio may be part of a sub-gig radio, as describedherein. In some embodiments, the sub-gig radio may be used as the EPCradio (depending on the frequencies required).

In certain embodiments, two or more POP displays 102 (and their wirelessbeacons 114) are used for testing (e.g., assessing) the usefulness ofdifferent customer interaction experiences. For example, multiple POPdisplays 102 may be used to conduct A/B (or split) testing of differentcustomer interactions. In such embodiments, a first POP display 102 (ora first set of POP displays) is configured to provide a first customer(consumer) interaction experience to one or more customers. The firstcustomer interaction experience may include, for example, displayingcertain content on display 119 of customer device 118 in response to thecustomer device receiving data packets from wireless beacons 114 on thefirst POP display 102. The content displayed may be controlled based on,for example, the unique identifier of wireless beacon 114 on the firstPOP display 102. In embodiments using a first set of POP displays, thecontent displayed may be controlled based on unique identifiers forwireless beacons associated with the first set of POP displays.

For comparative testing (e.g., A/B or split testing), a second POPdisplay 102 (or a second set of POP displays) may be configured toprovide a second customer interaction experience to the customers. Thesecond customer interaction experience may include displaying differentcontent on display 119 of customer device 118 than the first customerinteraction experience. Similar to the first POP displays 102, thecontent displayed for interaction with the second POP displays 102 maybe controlled using the unique identifiers for the second POP displays.

In certain embodiments, the customers' or users' interactions with thecontent displayed in both the first customer interaction experience andthe second customer interaction experience are assessed as theinteractions take place. Assessing the customers' interactions with thecontent displayed may include, for example, assessing the customers'responses to questions, the customers' clicking of hyperlinks, thecustomers' access of coupons or other promotions related to the productdisplayed, and/or the customers' interface with other on-screen prompts.Assessing the customers' interactions may also include, but not belimited to, assessing movement of customers in response to receivingcontent, dwell times of customers after receiving content, removal ofproducts from the POP display by the customer, and purchase of productsassociated with the POP display.

Comparison of the customers' interactions with the content displayed inthe first customer interaction experience with the customers'interactions with the content displayed in the second customerinteraction experience may provide an assessment of the comparativeeffectiveness of the different customer interaction experiences. In someembodiments, one or more of the customer interaction experiences may bedynamically altered during testing. For example, a customer interactionexperience (e.g., the content displayed) may be altered during testingif the currently displayed content is proving to be ineffective ingenerating interest in the product. Dynamically altering the interactionexperience may provide additional information relating to theeffectiveness of different interaction experiences on a single POPdisplay or a single set of POP displays.

In some embodiments, customer devices 118 (e.g., mobile devices such assmartphones) can act as wireless beacons. Each smartphone may have aunique identifier that is included in its BLE advertising packet. Theunique identifier is most often used for pairing the device with anotherBLE device. The smartphone's properties as a beacon, however, may beexploited without the smartphone being paired or connected with BLElistening devices.

In one embodiment, a BLE listening device is installed in one or morelocations throughout a retail store or public location, such as a mall,store window, or a lobby. This BLE listening capability (or device) maybe embedded within a network gateway or data collection device, or itcould be independent of those devices. A video screen or other mediamessaging device may be placed in one or more locations. There may bemultiple messages intended to be conveyed through the media device thatmay vary depending on the presence, number, and/or proximity ofsmartphones nearby. When people “opt in” to use their personalinformation or preferences to tailor information content, additionalmessage options may be served through the media device.

The advantages of using a non-phone video screen or media messagingdevice may revolve around consumer reach and ease of use. With amessaging device, consumers don't need to have their smartphones handyto receive content. A specific phone app or SDK may not be necessary forcustomers to trigger and receive information. A larger screen can conveymore information and/or clearer graphics than a smartphone screen.“After-hours”, such devices may also be used to provide store personnelwith a task list or section stocking instructions.

Examples of uses of a non-phone video screen or media messaging deviceinclude, but are not limited to, the following:

-   -   The media device could indicate that specific deli orders, photo        printing, or prescriptions are available for pickup when a        customer is proximal to the media device.    -   The media device's message may be triggered and tailored when X        or more people are proximal. The message content may further be        tailored through a server when Y people of a specific age group,        sex, or interest set are present, provided they opt-in to        utilizing their smartphone ID's to be associated with such        messages (e.g., information about blood pressure monitoring for        seniors, baby products for new parents, gluten-free products for        people with food sensitivities).    -   The media device may display an introductory message of interest        to a number of people, then “hand-off” specific offers or        additional interactive messages to specific smartphones to        ensure customer privacy or responsiveness to unique interests.    -   The media device could simultaneously collect data regarding        traffic counts, proximity, and dwell time.

As described herein, large sets of POP displays are often sent from thedisplay manufacturers to distribution centers or warehouses (e.g.,“co-packers”) for storage before being sent to their intended retaillocations. At one or more of these distribution centers, the POPdisplays may be combined with retail products before being sent out foruse at the retail locations. In certain embodiments, as describedherein, wireless beacons may be attached to the POP displays while thedisplays are located at the distribution center or at a co-packer. Insome embodiments, the wireless beacons are attached to the POP displaysjust prior to the displays being sent out to their intended retaillocations. For example, the wireless beacons may be attached to the POPdisplays just before or during the pack-out process for the displays andretail products.

In embodiments where the wireless beacons are attached to the POPdisplays at the distribution center (or another intermediate locationbetween the manufacturer and the final retail location), it may beimportant that each wireless beacon's unique identifier is properlyassociated with the selected campaign for the POP displays. In someembodiments, wireless beacons are programmed (including programming ofunique identifier) and the unique identifier is paired with the selectedcampaign just before the wireless beacons are sent to the distributioncenter (e.g., co-packer) to be attached to the POP displays.

Such a programming and attachment process for the wireless beacons may,however, incur certain problems. For example, the wireless beacons maybe applied to the wrong marketing materials (e.g., attached to the wrongPOP displays). Additionally, it can be costly to pair each uniqueidentifier to the selected campaign before the wireless beacon isattached to the POP display and/or it can be difficult to timely shipthe wireless beacons prior to pack-out dates, which are often uncertaindates. Battery life may also be limited, and prematurely turning on thewireless beacons shortens the economic life of the wireless beacons. Toovercome some of these problems, techniques for ensuring wirelessbeacons are properly associated with the selected campaign and attachedto POP displays for the selected campaign may be utilized. Additionally,some techniques that reduce costs associated with shipping andlast-minute preparation of wireless beacons may be used.

In certain embodiments, printable circuits are used in combination withPOP displays and wireless beacons to improve the process for properlyassociating wireless beacons with POP displays and marketing campaigns.“Printable circuits”, as described herein, may include electronics thatare printed on a surface (e.g., components printed using a printer) thatare coupled together to form an electronic circuit. Printable circuitsand/or components may be printed using techniques known in the art(e.g., inkjet printing or screen printing). Examples of printablecomponents in printable circuits include, but are not limited to,passive components (e.g., resistors and capacitors) and activecomponents (e.g., field effect transistors). In some embodiments,printed batteries are used in combination with or in addition toprintable circuits. Printed batteries may be printed using more complextechniques than other printable components.

In some embodiments, some portion of a printable wireless beacon circuitis printed at the time the corrugate cardboard (or other displaymaterial) is printed with a marketing message. For example, abrand-specific logo and/or promotional message associated with aspecific “campaign” may be printed. The identification (e.g.,identification number) of the campaign may be encoded in a circuitprinted at the same time as the brand-specific logo and/or promotionalmessage. The circuit encoded with the campaign identification maysubsequently be mated with a circuit containing an identification thatis unique to each display associated with the campaign. In someembodiments, an activation date may also be encoded in the printablecircuit at that time. In some embodiments, the additional identificationinformation is contained in the form of an adhesive “patch” that may beattached to the display manually, or placed in a precise locationthrough machine application.

FIG. 18 depicts a representation of an embodiment of a POP displaysystem utilizing printable circuits. System 1000 includes POP display102 and wireless beacon 114. In certain embodiments, system 1000includes printable circuit 1002 on POP display 102. In some embodiments,printable circuit 1002 is attached (or otherwise coupled) to POP display102. In other embodiments, printable circuit 1002 is formed as a part ofPOP display 102. For example, printable circuit 1002 may be printeddirectly on material used for POP display 102 along with signs,graphics, or other marketing materials printed on the POP display.

Printable circuit 1002 may be used in combination with or instead ofmicrochips or other electronic circuit components normally mounted on aconductive board (e.g., a circuit board). In certain embodiments,printable circuit 1002 is printed using conductive or electronic inks.Inks used for printable circuit 1002 may include, but not be limited to,functional inks based on organic substances, polymers, nanoparticles, orthin-film semiconductors. Such functional inks have been developed formanufacturing flexible electronics that have contributed to thedevelopment of antennas, transistors, solar cells, radio frequencyidentification (RFID), flexible displays, electronic clothes, sensors,etc. In some embodiments, printable circuit 1002 is made of flexiblesubstrate materials. For example, paper may be used as the substratematerial. Paper may be used as the substrate material due to itsaccessibility, low cost, foldability, disposability, retrievability, andlow or negligible pollution. In some embodiments, printable circuit 1002includes organic printable components. For example, printable circuit1002 may include an organic field effect transistor. Inorganic printablecomponents may also be used for one or more printable components.

In certain embodiments, printable circuit 1002 includes printed data1004. Printed data 1004 may be, for example, data printed on the surfaceused for printable circuit 1002. Printed data 1004 may include data orinformation associated with a selected campaign (e.g., a selected retailcampaign) for POP display 102. In some embodiments, printed data 1004includes one or more parameters for the selected campaign. Theparameters for the selected campaign in printed data 1004 may includeconfiguration parameters or other information relevant to the selectedcampaign.

In certain embodiments, at least one parameter included in printed data1004 is a unique identifier for wireless beacon 114. Thus, as disclosedherein, wireless beacon 114 may receive and be assigned the uniqueidentifier from printed data 1004 when the wireless beacon is attachedto POP display 102. The unique identifier for wireless beacon 114included in printed data 1004 may be associated with or assigned to theselected campaign for POP display 102. For example, server 126, shown inFIG. 1, may associate the unique identifier in printed data 1004 withthe selected campaign for POP display 102. In certain embodiments, theunique identifier in printed data 1004 is associated/assigned to theselected campaign before printing the printed data on POP display 102.Examples of other parameters that may be included in printed data 1004include, but are not limited to, activation date of the selectedcampaign, campaign identification information, and retailer information.

In certain embodiments, wireless beacon 114 in system 1000 does notinclude any programming or configuration information associated with theselected campaign before being attached to POP display 102. For example,wireless beacon 114 may include pre-flashed chips with code foroperation as a wireless beacon without any additional programming orconfiguration information. In certain embodiments, the pre-flashed codefor wireless beacon 114 includes instructions for receiving printed data1004 when the wireless beacon is attached to POP display 102. Theinstructions may, for example, be stored in a memory of wireless beacon114.

In certain embodiments, wireless beacon 114 is attached to POP display102 at or near the location of printable circuit 1002. For example,wireless beacon 114 may be attached to POP display 102 along dashedlines 1006 surrounding printable circuit 1002, shown in FIG. 18. Dashedlines 1006 may represent a location for proper attachment of wirelessbeacon 114 to POP display 102. FIG. 19 depicts a representation of anembodiment of system 1000 with wireless beacon 114 properly attached toPOP display 102 along dashed lines 1006. When wireless beacon 114 isproperly attached to printable circuit 1002 on POP display 102, as shownin FIG. 19, the wireless beacon is able to access and receive printeddata 1004 in the printable circuit.

In some embodiments, illumination indicator 1008 provides indicationthat wireless beacon 114 has been properly attached to printable circuit1002. Illumination indicator 1008 may be, for example, an LED or otherilluminator that is triggered on when proper connection is made betweenwireless beacon 114 and printable circuit 1002. In some embodiments,illumination indicator 1008 is located on wireless beacon 114. In someembodiments, illumination indicator 1008 is included in printablecircuit 1002 (e.g., is a component of the printable circuit), as shownin FIG. 18.

Once wireless beacon 114 is properly attached to printable circuit 1002on POP display 102, as shown in FIG. 19, the wireless beacon may receiveprinted data 1004 from the printable circuit. Printed data 1004 mayinclude configuration parameters for the wireless beacon such as theunique identifier for wireless beacon 114 and an activation date for theselected campaign. After receiving printed data 1004, wireless beacon114 may enter a low power mode (e.g., a sleep or non-broadcasting mode)until the activation date for the selected campaign or another activemode is begun as described herein.

In some embodiments, wireless beacon 114 is powered on before beingattached to printable circuit 1002 on POP display 102. Wireless beacon114 may be powered on before being attached if the wireless beaconincludes a battery on the wireless beacon. In some embodiments, wirelessbeacon 114 is powered on when the wireless beacon is attached toprintable circuit 1002 on POP display 102. For example, a switch orother trigger device on POP display 102 may turn on wireless beacon 114as the wireless beacon is attached to the POP display. In someembodiments, wireless beacon 114 does not include a battery (e.g., thewireless beacon is unpowered before being attached to POP display 102).In such embodiments, power for wireless beacon 114 may be provided by abattery located on POP display 102. The battery may be coupled towireless beacon 114 through printable circuit 1002. In certainembodiments, printable circuit 1002 includes printed battery 1010.Printed battery 1010 may provide power to wireless beacon 114 when thewireless beacon is attached to printable circuit 1002. In someembodiments, printed battery 1010 may include two or more printedbatteries.

As described above, pre-flashed wireless beacon 114 may be attached toPOP display 102 at a distribution center (e.g., a co-packer) with thewireless beacon 114 receiving parameters associated with the selectedcampaign from printed data 1004 on the POP display. As wireless beacon114 is sent to the distribution center in the pre-flashed state, thewireless beacon does not need to be pre-programmed or configured for theselected campaign before it is sent to the distribution center. Thus, aplurality of wireless beacons 114, all having the same pre-flashed codewithout specific configuration parameters, may be sent to multipledistribution centers without logistical concerns about exactly whichwireless beacon is sent where because the wireless beacons will receivetheir configuration parameters (e.g., “obtain their identity) whenattached to printable circuits 1002 on POP displays 102.

In some embodiments, a reel and tray/tape based system is used to attachwireless beacons 114 to printable circuits 1002 on POP displays 102.FIG. 20 depicts a representation of an embodiment of reel/tray basedsystem 1012 for attaching wireless beacons 114 to printable circuits1002 on POP displays 102. Wireless beacons 114 may be placed on trays1014. Trays 1014 may be similar to trays and/or tape used for surfacemount integrated circuit components. In some embodiments, trays 1014 arefed onto reels 1016. Reels 1016, with trays 1014 and wireless beacons114 wound onto the reels, may be transported to a distribution center(e.g., a co-packer).

At the distribution center (or other location for attaching wirelessbeacons 114 to POP displays 102), reels 1016 may be placed intoapparatus 1018. Apparatus 1018 may be used to attach wireless beacons114 to POP displays 102 with printable circuits 1002. Apparatus 1018 maybe designed similar to apparatus for surface mounting integrated circuitcomponents such that wireless beacons 114 are properly located onprintable circuits 1002 on POP displays 102 (e.g., the wireless beaconsare properly attached to the printable circuits to receive printeddata).

Prescription pharmaceutical products and/or other high-value,tightly-controlled products are often shipped in reusable totes orsimilar shipping containers. An embodiment of a tote is shown in FIG.24. Tote 1100 may be a plastic tote or a tote made from another suitablereusable material. In certain embodiments, tote 1100 is a shippingcontainer for prescription pharmaceutical products. Tote 1100 may alsobe a shipping container for other products such as other high-value,tightly-controlled products. For example, tote 1100 may be a shippingcontainer for products that need to be grouped in some way for shipment.Tote 1100 may be used to ship prescription pharmaceutical products fromone location to another (e.g., from a warehouse to a pharmacy).

In certain embodiments, tote 1100 includes cover 1102 that can berepeatedly opened and closed. Cover 1102 may be, for example, a lid orother structure that opens and closes to provide access to the inside oftote 1100. When contents (e.g., prescription pharmaceutical products)are placed in tote 1100, cover 1102 is sealed using, for example, tamperevident tape, zip ties, crimped bands, or another sealing material thatprovides notice that the tote has been unsealed or tampered with duringtransportation. Tote 1100 is supposed to only be opened at its finallocation (e.g., a pharmacy) by authorized personnel.

Some retailers require that totes be opened in specific areas undersurveillance cameras. A typical problem in pharmacies or stock rooms,however, is that security cameras are often only located in consumerareas of the stores (e.g., where consumer shopping takes place) to, forexample, prevent shoplifting. Even in pharmacies, cameras are typicallydedicated to monitoring purchase transactions. Thus, unpacking of tote1100 often goes unrecorded. To record unpacking of tote 1100 wouldrequire significant infrastructure investment in surveillance camerasand/or additional equipment. The use of wireless beacons and networkgateways (and/or data collection devices) may provide a simple, costeffective solution for tracking tote 1100 and the loading/unloading ofthe tote to provide accountability of products.

In certain embodiments, tote 1100 includes wireless beacon 114 andswitch 1104. Wireless beacon 114 may transmit a data packet with theunique identifier for the wireless beacon in a wireless signal. Theunique identifier may be associated with tote 1100 and/or the products(e.g., the prescription pharmaceutical products) associated with thetote. Switch 1104 may be a microswitch or another switch that can detectopening/closing of cover 1102. When cover 1102 is opened/closed, switch1104 may provide a signal to wireless beacon 114 that the cover has beenopened/closed.

Wireless beacon 114 normally transmits its wireless signal at a standard(normal) transmittal rate. In certain embodiments, when cover 1102 isclosed, wireless beacon 114 increases its transmittal rate to a morerapid transmission rate for a selected amount of time (e.g., thewireless beacon goes from the first (standard) transmittal rate to asecond (higher) transmittal rate for the selected amount of time). Afterthe selected amount of time expires, the transmittal rate of wirelessbeacon 114 goes back to its standard (slower) transmittal rate.Similarly, when cover 1102 is opened, wireless beacon 114 may increaseits transmittal rate to the more rapid transmission rate for a selectedamount of time. The amount of time for either rapid transmission modewhen tote 1100 is opened or closed may be, for example, a selectednumber of minutes suitable for a network gateway (e.g., network gateway710) to receive and recognize the unique identifier for wireless beacon114.

Tote 1100 may be opened or closed in a selected area either at thewarehouse or the pharmacy. In certain embodiments, the selected areawhere the contents of tote 1100 are loaded or unloaded (e.g., the toteis opened or closed) is a workstation provided for a use to load/unloadthe tote. In certain embodiments, at least one workstation is installedat both loading (e.g., warehouse) and unloading (e.g., pharmacy)locations for the products. Using a workstation at both ends of thetransport process may provide a system for confirming both loading andunloading processes of the products and ensuring the loading andunloading processes have minimal exposure to fraud or theft.

FIG. 25 depicts a representation of an embodiment of workstation 1106for loading/unloading tote 1100. Workstation 1106 may include shelf 1108to place tote 1100 on for loading/unloading. In certain embodiments,workstation 1106 includes camera 1110. Camera 1110 may be a video camerabut may also be capable of providing multiple still images over a shorttime frame. Camera 1110 may be a wide-angle camera to enable a largefield of view of area around tote 1100. Camera 1110 may be a small,inexpensive camera (e.g., a camera similar in cost and size to asmartphone camera). Camera 1110 may be positioned to simultaneouslycapture video of tote 1100, the contents of the tote, and a userloading/unloading the tote. In some embodiments, camera 1110 may includetwo or more cameras positioned around workstation 1106 thatsimultaneously capture video of the workstation.

Camera 1110 may be coupled to network gateway 710 to provide its videofeed to the network gateway. In certain embodiments, network gateway 710is a wireless network gateway. Network gateway 710 may receive videofrom camera 1110 either through a wireless connection or a wiredconnection. In certain embodiments, camera 1110 is always on andproviding video feed to network gateway 710. For example, camera 1110may provide substantially continuous video of workstation 1106 tonetwork gateway 710. Video received by network gateway 710 from camera1110 may be temporarily stored in a memory of the network gateway. Forexample, video received by network gateway 710 may be stored in ashort-term reusable memory in the network gateway.

In some embodiments, images from camera 1110 are processed through oneor more artificial intelligence algorithms to detect and report on thecontents of tote 1100. Detecting and reporting on contents of tote 1100may be used to certify correct or incorrect loading of a tote.Additionally, detecting and reporting on contents of tote 1100 may beused to compare products in the tote at receipt versus products in thetote at the time of pack-out. Such comparisons may aid in the assessmentof loss prevention opportunities and/or issues.

In some embodiments, special instructions or notes associated with theshipment are included in a data record associated with images and/orpacking/unpacking of tote 1100. These instructions or notes may begenerated and/or included from either the pack-out facility or thereceiving pharmacy. Additional information associated with a particularshipment record may be generated by automated collectors and/or gateways(e.g., network gateway 710) installed at the originating warehouse,delivery trucks, and/or store entrances or stocking areas.

In certain embodiments, network gateway 710 receives wireless signalsfrom wireless beacon 114 on tote 1100. In some embodiments, networkgateway 710 cycles between two different detection modes for receivingwireless signals from wireless beacon 114. In a first mode, networkgateway 710 may be relatively insensitive to detecting (e.g., reading)wireless signals from wireless beacon 114. In the first mode, networkgateway 710 may only be able to detect (read) wireless beacon 114 whentote 1100 (and thus the wireless beacon) is at or immediately adjacentworkstation 1106. In a second mode, network gateway 710 may be a highersensitivity mode where the network gateway can detect (read) signalsfrom wireless beacon 114 over a greater area (e.g., over an entire storeor pharmacy). Through long-distance reads (e.g., detecting signals overa greater area in the second mode), the arrival at the store of a giventote may be noted. Through reads only proximal to the workstation, thearrival of the tote to the pharmacy area may be noted. Through readsimmediate to the workstation, the unpacking event may be identified. Insome embodiments, network gateway 710 uses only a single detectioncapability for receiving wireless signals from wireless beacon 114. Forexample, network gateway 710 may only use a detuned antenna thatreceives wireless signals from throughout the store/pharmacy.

During normal operation (e.g., when wireless beacon 114 is transmittingat its normal transmittal rate), network gateway 710 receives thesubstantially continuous video from camera 1110 and temporarily stores aselected amount of video in the network gateway memory. At a loadingworkstation 1106 (e.g., a workstation at the warehouse), when cover 1102of tote 1100 is closed after the tote's contents (e.g., prescriptionpharmaceutical products) are loaded into the tote, wireless beacon 114begins transmitting at the second (higher) transmittal rate, asdescribed above. Network gateway 710 may recognize the highertransmittal rate as a signal that tote 1100 has been loaded withcontents and, in response, the network gateway may associate wirelessbeacon 114′s unique identifier with an order number assigned to thetote's contents.

Additionally, in response to receiving the higher transmittal ratesignal from wireless beacon 114, network gateway 710 may transfer aselected amount of video from its temporary memory storage to an eventregistry in its memory. The selected amount of video may include aselected amount of video (e.g., a selected number of minutes of video)from before the higher transmittal rate signal is received and aselected amount of video subsequent to receiving the higher transmittalrate signal. The event registry may also include time and dateinformation as well as any other relevant information regarding theloading transaction deemed necessary. After the selected amount of videosubsequent to receiving the higher transmittal rate signal is recordedinto the event registry, network gateway 710 may transmit the data ofthe event registry to remote server 126. For example, network gateway710 may transmit the data of the event registry to remote server 126over a cellular communication network.

Remote server 126 may store the transmitted data in a database. Thedatabase may store the transmitted data with reference to any of theinformation provided in the event registry. For example, the data may beregistered according to the assigned order number, the unique identifierfor wireless beacon 114, identification information for the user loadingthe contents, time/date information (e.g., time/date of video recordingin event registry), description information of the shipped products,and/or description information for subsets of the shipped products.

At an unloading workstation 1106 (e.g., a workstation at the pharmacy),when cover 1102 of tote 1100 is opened after the tote has been receivedat the pharmacy and a user begins to unload the contents (e.g.,prescription pharmaceutical products), wireless beacon 114 begins toagain transmit at the second (higher) transmittal rate, as describedabove. As wireless beacon 114′s unique identifier has already beenassociated with the order number assigned during loading of thecontents, network gateway 710 at the pharmacy may already associate tote1100 with the assigned order number and the expected contents of theorder. In some embodiments, the content information may be provided tothe user at the unloading workstation 1106.

In response to receiving the higher transmittal rate signal fromwireless beacon 114, network gateway 710 at the pharmacy may transfer aselected amount of video from its temporary memory storage to an eventregistry in its memory. The selected amount of video may include aselected amount of video (e.g., a selected number of minutes of video)from before opening of tote 1100 and a selected amount of videosubsequent to opening the tote. The event registry may also include timeand date information as well as any other relevant information regardingthe unloading transaction deemed necessary. After the selected amount ofvideo subsequent to opening tote 1100 is recorded into the eventregistry, network gateway 710 may transmit the data of the eventregistry to remote server 126.

Remote server 126 may store the transmitted data in its database andassociate the transmitted data with the previously stored loading datafor the order number. Similar to the loading event storage, the data maybe registered according to the assigned order number, the uniqueidentifier for wireless beacon 114, identification information for theuser unloading the contents, time/date information, descriptioninformation of the received products, and/or description information forsubsets of the received products. The database now includes data forboth loading/unloading of the products for the specific order number. Auser may then retrieve video (and other information) associated with thespecific order number as needed and be able to review the video to seewhat went into the tote, who loaded the tote, what came out of the tote,and who unloaded the tote as well as any other relevant informationstored in database relevant to the events surrounding loading/unloadingof the tote. After information for multiple loading/unloading events isstored in the database, a user may be able to retrieve, sort, and/orprocess the information for the multiple loading/unloading events asneeded to determine, for example, where products are lost, misplaced, orstolen.

In some embodiments, wireless beacon 114 includes a counter. The countermay count the number of times wireless beacon 114 transmits at thesecond (higher or non-standard) transmittal rate. Thus, the counter maytrack the number of times tote 1100 is opened and closed. The countermay also store information about the date/time of when wireless beacon114 transmits at the second transmittal rate. Information from thecounter may be transmitted to network gateway 710 (and remote server126) along with other data regarding the loading/unloading processes.The counter information may be used to compare the number of times tote1100 is opened/closed versus the number of times the tote is received atworkstations 1106 and opened/closed at the workstations. Thus, thecounter information may be used to ensure that tote 1100 has not beenopened or closed at a location besides workstations 1106.

In certain embodiments, one or more process steps described herein maybe performed by one or more processors (e.g., a computer processor)executing instructions stored on a non-transitory computer-readablemedium. For example, communication between POP display 102, customerdevice 118, server 126, and/or network gateway 710, shown in FIG. 1, mayhave one or more steps performed by one or more processors executinginstructions stored as program instructions in a computer readablestorage medium (e.g., a non-transitory computer readable storagemedium). In certain embodiments, controller 112, on POP display 102,software package 125, on customer device 118, server 126, and/or networkgateway 710 include program instructions in the computer readablestorage medium.

FIG. 26 depicts a block diagram of one embodiment of exemplary computersystem 410. Exemplary computer system 410 may be used to implement oneor more embodiments described herein. In some embodiments, computersystem 410 is operable by a user to implement one or more embodimentsdescribed herein such as communication between POP display 102, customerdevice 118, server 126, and/or network gateway 710, shown in FIG. 1. Inthe embodiment of FIG. 26, computer system 410 includes processor 412,memory 414, and various peripheral devices 416. Processor 412 is coupledto memory 414 and peripheral devices 416. Processor 412 is configured toexecute instructions, including the instructions for communicationbetween POP display 102, customer device 118, server 126, and/or networkgateway 710, which may be in software. In various embodiments, processor412 may implement any desired instruction set (e.g. IntelArchitecture-32 (IA-32, also known as x86), IA-32 with 64-bitextensions, x86-64, PowerPC, Sparc, MIPS, ARM, IA-64, etc.). In someembodiments, computer system 410 may include more than one processor.Moreover, processor 412 may include one or more processors or one ormore processor cores.

Processor 412 may be coupled to memory 414 and peripheral devices 416 inany desired fashion. For example, in some embodiments, processor 412 maybe coupled to memory 414 and/or peripheral devices 416 via variousinterconnect. Alternatively or in addition, one or more bridge chips maybe used to coupled processor 412, memory 414, and peripheral devices416.

Memory 414 may comprise any type of memory system. For example, memory414 may comprise DRAM, and more particularly double data rate (DDR)SDRAM, RDRAM, etc. A memory controller may be included to interface tomemory 414, and/or processor 412 may include a memory controller. Memory414 may store the instructions to be executed by processor 412 duringuse, data to be operated upon by the processor during use, etc.

Peripheral devices 416 may represent any sort of hardware devices thatmay be included in computer system 410 or coupled thereto (e.g., storagedevices, optionally including computer accessible storage medium 500,shown in FIG. 27, other input/output (I/O) devices such as videohardware, audio hardware, user interface devices, networking hardware,etc.).

Turning now to FIG. 27, a block diagram of one embodiment of computeraccessible storage medium 500 including one or more data structuresrepresentative of POP display 102 (depicted in FIG. 1) and/or memorycache 124 (depicted in FIG. 1) included in an integrated circuit designand one or more code sequences representative of communication betweenPOP display 102, customer device 118, server 126, and/or network gateway710 (shown in FIGS. 1 and 3). Each code sequence may include one or moreinstructions, which when executed by a processor in a computer,implement the operations described for the corresponding code sequence.Generally speaking, a computer accessible storage medium may include anystorage media accessible by a computer during use to provideinstructions and/or data to the computer. For example, a computeraccessible storage medium may include non-transitory storage media suchas magnetic or optical media, e.g., disk (fixed or removable), tape,CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW, or Blu-Ray. Storage mediamay further include volatile or non-volatile memory media such as RAM(e.g. synchronous dynamic RAM (SDRAM), Rambus DRAM (RDRAM), static RAM(SRAM), etc.), ROM, or Flash memory. The storage media may be physicallyincluded within the computer to which the storage media providesinstructions/data. Alternatively, the storage media may be connected tothe computer. For example, the storage media may be connected to thecomputer over a network or wireless link, such as network attachedstorage. The storage media may be connected through a peripheralinterface such as the Universal Serial Bus (USB). Generally, computeraccessible storage medium 500 may store data in a non-transitory manner,where non-transitory in this context may refer to not transmitting theinstructions/data on a signal. For example, non-transitory storage maybe volatile (and may lose the stored instructions/data in response to apower down) or non-volatile.

Embodiments of the present disclosure may be realized in any of variousforms. For example, some embodiments may be realized as acomputer-implemented method, a computer-readable memory medium, or acomputer system. Other embodiments may be realized using one or morecustom-designed hardware devices such as ASICs. Other embodiments may berealized using one or more programmable hardware elements such as FPGAs(field programmable gate arrays).

In some embodiments, a non-transitory computer-readable memory mediummay be configured so that it stores program instructions and/or data,where the program instructions, if executed by a computer system, causethe computer system to perform a method, e.g., any method embodimentsdescribed herein, or, any combination of the method embodimentsdescribed herein, or, any subset of any of the method embodimentsdescribed herein, or, any combination of such subsets.

In some embodiments, a wireless device (or wireless station) may beconfigured to include a processor (or a set of processors) and a memorymedium, where the memory medium stores program instructions, where theprocessor is configured to read and execute the program instructionsfrom the memory medium, where the program instructions are executable tocause the wireless device to implement any of the various methodembodiments described herein (or, any combination of the methodembodiments described herein, or, any subset of any of the methodembodiments described herein, or, any combination of such subsets). Thedevice may be realized in any of various forms.

Although specific embodiments have been described above, theseembodiments are not intended to limit the scope of the presentdisclosure, even where only a single embodiment is described withrespect to a particular feature. Examples of features provided in thedisclosure are intended to be illustrative rather than restrictiveunless stated otherwise. The above description is intended to cover suchalternatives, modifications, and equivalents as would be apparent to aperson skilled in the art having the benefit of this disclosure.

The scope of the present disclosure includes any feature or combinationof features disclosed herein (either explicitly or implicitly), or anygeneralization thereof, whether or not it mitigates any or all of theproblems addressed herein. Accordingly, new claims may be formulatedduring prosecution of this application (or an application claimingpriority thereto) to any such combination of features. In particular,with reference to the appended claims, features from dependent claimsmay be combined with those of the independent claims and features fromrespective independent claims may be combined in any appropriate mannerand not merely in the specific combinations enumerated in the appendedclaims.

Further modifications and alternative embodiments of various aspects ofthe embodiments described in this disclosure will be apparent to thoseskilled in the art in view of this description. Accordingly, thisdescription is to be construed as illustrative only and is for thepurpose of teaching those skilled in the art the general manner ofcarrying out the embodiments. It is to be understood that the forms ofthe embodiments shown and described herein are to be taken as thepresently preferred embodiments. Elements and materials may besubstituted for those illustrated and described herein, parts andprocesses may be reversed, and certain features of the embodiments maybe utilized independently, all as would be apparent to one skilled inthe art after having the benefit of this description. Changes may bemade in the elements described herein without departing from the spiritand scope of the following claims.

1-40. (canceled)
 41. A system, comprising: a shipping container with acover, the shipping container configured to transport a plurality ofproducts; a wireless beacon attached to the shipping container, thewireless beacon including a processor and a memory, wherein the wirelessbeacon is configured to broadcast a wireless signal, the wireless signalincluding a data packet, and wherein the data packet comprises a uniqueidentifier for the wireless beacon; a switch coupled to the cover of theshipping container and to the wireless beacon, wherein the switch isconfigured to provide a signal to the wireless beacon when the cover onthe shipping container is opened or closed; one or more cameras, whereinat least one of the cameras is configured to capture substantiallycontinuous video of an area where the products are loaded into and/orunloaded from the shipping container; and a network gateway configuredto receive the wireless signal from the wireless beacon and thesubstantially continuous video from the at least one camera, the networkgateway comprising a processor and a memory, and wherein the receivedvideo is stored in the memory of the network gateway; wherein thewireless beacon is configured to change a transmittal rate of thewireless signal from a first transmittal rate to a second transmittalrate in response to the switch providing the signal to the wirelessbeacon that the cover on the shipping container has been opened orclosed, the wireless beacon providing the wireless signal at the secondtransmittal rate for a selected amount of time before the transmittalrate changes back to the first transmittal rate, and wherein the networkgateway is configured to provide, to a remote server, a selected amountof the received video from its memory along with the unique identifierfor the wireless beacon in response to the network gateway receiving thewireless signal at the second transmittal rate, the selected amount ofthe received video comprising at least some video captured before thechange in transmittal rate and at least some video captured after thechange in transmittal rate.
 42. The system of claim 41, wherein thesecond transmittal rate is higher than the first transmittal rate. 43.The system of claim 41, wherein the network gateway memory comprisesshort-term reusable memory for at least temporarily storing the receivedvideo.
 44. The system of claim 43, wherein the network gateway memorycomprises an event registry for storing the selected amount of thereceived video before providing the selected amount of the receivedvideo to the remote server.
 45. The system of claim 41, wherein the areawhere the products are loaded into and/or unloaded from the shippingcontainer comprises a workstation for a user to load and/or unload theshipping container.
 46. The system of claim 41, wherein the networkgateway is configured to cycle between a first detection mode and asecond detection mode, wherein, in the first detection mode, the networkgateway is configured to receive the wireless beacon signal only whenthe wireless beacon is placed at or adjacent the area where the productsare loaded into and/or unloaded from the shipping container, andwherein, in the second detection mode, the network gateway is configuredto receive the wireless beacon signal at a larger distance than thefirst detection mode.
 47. The system of claim 41, wherein the wirelessbeacon comprises a counter, the counter configured to count a number oftimes the wireless beacon transmits at the second transmittal rate. 48.The system of claim 41, wherein the shipping container comprises a totewith a sealable cover.
 49. A method, comprising: continuously recordingvideo of a first location using at least one camera directed at thefirst location, the first location being an area where products areloaded into and/or unloaded from a shipping container, the shippingcontainer having a cover, and wherein the shipping container is used totransport the products between the first location and at least onesecond location; receiving the continuously recorded video in a networkgateway, the network gateway comprising a processor and a memory;storing the received video in the memory of the network gateway;broadcasting a wireless signal from a wireless beacon attached to theshipping container, the wireless beacon including a processor and amemory, wherein the wireless signal includes a data packet with a uniqueidentifier for the wireless beacon, wherein the wireless beaconbroadcasts the wireless signal at a first transmittal rate until thewireless beacon receives a signal from a switch attached to the cover ofthe shipping container that the cover has been opened or closed, andwherein the wireless beacon broadcasts the wireless signal at a secondtransmittal rate for a selected amount of time in response to receivingthe signal from the switch that the cover has been opened or closed; andreceiving, at the network gateway, the wireless signal broadcast by thewireless beacon attached to the shipping container, the wireless signalincluding the unique identifier for the wireless beacon, wherein thenetwork gateway provides, to a remote server, a selected amount of thereceived video from the network gateway memory along with the uniqueidentifier for the wireless beacon in response to the network gatewayreceiving the wireless signal at the second transmittal rate, theselected amount of the received video comprising at least some videocaptured before the change to the second transmittal rate and at leastsome video captured after the change to the second transmittal rate. 50.The method of claim 49, wherein the second transmittal rate is higherthan the first transmittal rate.
 51. The method of claim 49, furthercomprising storing the received video in a short-term reusable memory ofthe network gateway.
 52. The method of claim 49, further comprisingassociating a date and time the cover is opened or closed, an ordernumber assigned to the products being loaded or unloaded, and/or adescription of the products with the selected amount of the receivedvideo provided to the remote server.
 53. The method of claim 49, furthercomprising positioning the at least one camera to capture thecontinuously recorded video of the user and contents of the shippingcontainer substantially simultaneously.
 54. The method of claim 49,further comprising counting, using a counter in the wireless beacon, anumber of times the wireless beacon transmits at the second transmittalrate.
 55. A method, comprising: continuously recording video of a firstlocation using at least one camera directed at the first location, thefirst location being an area where products are loaded into and/orunloaded from a shipping container, the shipping container having acover, and wherein the shipping container is used to transport theroductiproducts between the first location and at least one secondlocation; broadcasting a wireless signal from a wireless beacon attachedto the shipping container, the wireless beacon including a processor anda memory, wherein the wireless signal includes a data packet with aunique identifier for the wireless beacon, wherein the wireless beaconbroadcasts the wireless signal at a first transmittal rate; receivingthe wireless signal and the continuously recorded video in a networkgateway, the network gateway comprising a processor and a memory;storing the received video in the memory of the network gateway, thereceived video being associated with the unique identifier received inthe wireless signal; automatically changing a transmittal rate of thewireless signal broadcast from the wireless beacon in response to thewireless beacon receiving a signal from a switch attached to the coverof the shipping container that the cover on the shipping container hasbeen opened or closed, the transmittal rate being changed to a secondtransmittal rate, wherein the wireless beacon broadcasts the wirelesssignal at the second transmittal rate for a selected amount of time inresponse to receiving the signal from the switch that the cover has beenopened or closed; and providing, to a remote server, a selected amountof the received video from the network gateway memory along with theunique identifier for the wireless beacon in response to the networkgateway receiving the wireless signal at the second transmittal rate,the selected amount of the received video comprising at least some videocaptured before the change in the transmittal rate and at least somevideo captured after the change in the transmittal rate.
 56. The methodof claim 55, wherein the second transmittal rate is higher than thefirst transmittal rate.
 57. The method of claim 55, further comprisingstoring the received video in a short-term reusable memory of thenetwork gateway.
 58. The method of claim 55, wherein the network gatewaywirelessly receives the continuously recorded video from the at leastone camera.
 59. The method of claim 55, wherein the network gatewayreceives the continuously recorded video from the at least one camerathrough a wired connection between the network gateway and the at leastone camera.
 60. The method of claim 55, further comprising positioningthe at least one camera to capture the continuously recorded video ofthe user and contents of the shipping container substantiallysimultaneously.